Change To Real Estate Act Rules Should Make Life Easier For Brokerages

By Kyle Schaub, Practice Review Manager 

A recent change to section 82 of the Real Estate Act Rules has received Ministerial approval and should make life easier for brokerages when it comes to how your brokerage stores electronic files.

As it stood, sections 82(1) and 82(2) stipulated that brokerages must store electronic records in a physical premise accessible by the broker in Alberta. 

To better align with current cloud storage practices, the rule was changed to no longer stipulate that electronic records need to be in any physical premise, they just need to be accessible by the broker. This improvement should provide brokerages with more options when evaluating cloud-based storage services to retain their brokerage files, where some major cloud-storage providers may not have local servers. 

Please be advised that to align with privacy laws, brokers must still obtain client permission for their personal files to be stored by a third-party service provider. 

Committed to Reducing Red Tape 

This Rule change was made to reduce red tape and offer more options for brokerage electronic file storage.

If you have any questions regarding the change to Rules s.82(1) and (2), how this change might affect the way your brokerage stores electronic files, or any other questions regarding the storage of client information, please reach out to practicereview@reca.ca.