Advisory

Purpose

BC Financial Services Authority (“BCFSA”) is reminding licensees that amendments to the Real Estate Services Rules (“the Rules”) respecting real estate teams (“teams”) are coming into effect on April 1, 2023.

Licensees that are part of a team with only one licensed member must add at least one other licensee to their team by April 1, 2023 or their team will be deregistered by BCFSA. Unlicensed assistants do not count towards the total membership of a team.

Please note: licensees that are currently on a registered team with two or more licensed members will have their registration carried forward and are not required to do anything further.

Background

The new requirements for teams are designed to strengthen consumer protection by clarifying existing requirements and practices within the Rules and aligning to the corresponding regulatory guidelines.

Key changes to the Rules include:

• Defining a “real estate team”;
• Requiring all teams to register with BCFSA; and
• Requiring advertising to identify the team’s name.

The changes also clarify that:

• Teams must be composed of at least two licensed members;
• Team members cannot provide trading services outside of their team;
• Team members are collectively the designated agent of all the team’s clients;
• Licensees can only be a member of one team at a time; and
• All team members must be related to the same brokerage.

Possible Action Required

Licensees will be required to register their teams by April 1, 2023 if they are either:

1. A member of an unregistered family team who advertise under a shared last name; or
2. A member of an unregistered group of licensees whose business practices are captured by the new team registration requirement.

If licensees in either scenario decide not to register their team, they must change their business practices so that they no longer operate as one (for example, licensees should cease advertising together under a shared surname, stop sharing client information, stop providing joint real estate services, and cease sharing a personal office that is not on brokerage premises, if applicable).

BCFSA recommends that any licensee in a scenario requiring team registration do so before April 1, as registering a team or joining an existing team after this date will incur a $50 application fee per member. All real estate teams forms can be found as fillable webforms in the Integrated Regulatory Information System (“IRIS”).

Additional Information

If you have questions about the new Rules for teams or require additional information on how teams are expected to operate moving forward, please refer to the following resources:

• Frequently Asked Questions on Real Estate Teams;
• Real Estate Teams Regulatory Information; and

• Real Estate Teams Guidelines.

If you have questions about this Advisory or a specific teams-related issue, contact BCFSA’s Practice Standards Advisors.