New Provincial Requirements for Contract Assignments Announced

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The provincial government announced today that beginning May 16, 2016, new rules relating to the assignment of real estate contracts will come into effect. All licensees providing trading services need to be aware of these new rules and understand how to comply with the requirements.

The new provincial rules are intended to help real estate consumers make informed decisions about contract assignments before accepting an offer on their property. They will apply in transactions where a licensee is acting for a seller and/or a prospective buyer.

As part of the new requirements, licensees preparing an offer must include the following terms, unless otherwise instructed by their client:

this contract must not be assigned without the written consent of the seller; and
the seller is entitled to any profit resulting from an assignment of the contract by the buyer or any subsequent assignee.

The new rules also include steps that licensees must take if they are involved in a potential real estate transaction where an offer does not include these terms. More information on these steps is available on the Council’s website.

The Real Estate Council of BC is undertaking a number of initiatives to ensure consumers are well informed about the changes, and that real estate licensees act in compliance with the new requirements:

We will be providing educational tools to prepare managing brokers and licensees to begin implementing the new requirements on May 16.
We are developing a comprehensive enforcement and compliance plan to ensure that effective monitoring of the new regulations is in place.
We are preparing a consumer education campaign to give prospective buyers and sellers the information they need about the new assignment regulations, because informed consumers are protected consumers.

Look for further announcements from the Council about educational materials for licensees and consumers beginning next week.

More Information

Further information about the changes announced today is available at:

Further Consumer Protection Measures Expected

The new rules announced today are intended to strengthen the requirement under the Real Estate Services Act that licensees act only in the best interests of their clients. The BC government took action to regulate contract assignments in March 2016, following reports in the media that some real estate licensees were not acting in their clients’ best interests in relation to assignments. The Council has also taken action, by initiating an Independent Advisory Group to develop wide-ranging recommendations on measures to strengthen the enforcement of conduct requirements for real estate licensees and increase consumer protection. We look forward to receiving the final recommendations from that group in early June.

This information is provided to you by the Real Estate Council of British Columbia.

Your feedback is always welcome and can be sent to info@recbc.ca.