Vancouver Sun

Real estate board triples fines for unethical agents

Maximum jumps to $30,000

- DENISE RYAN

The Vancouver Real Estate Board has increased the maximum fines it can impose on unethical realtors to $30,000 from $10,000.

The new rules, ratified at the annual general meeting of the profession­al associatio­n, allow fines to individual agents, managing brokers and their firms or all three at once, up to $90,000 in total.

Dan Morrison, who was voted president of the Vancouver Real Estate Board at the meeting on Wednesday, said the increased fines are not a direct response to recent media coverage and public concern over the issue of “shadow flipping” and property assignment.

Morrison said the board’s profession­al conduct committees had been looking into increasing fines for misconduct for the past 14 months. “They came to us and said our maximum fine is only $10,000, it’s been that way since 2004, prices are higher and for some of these deals it’s just considered the cost of doing business, so clearly we need to increase our maximum penalties.”

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver is a profession­al organizati­on that provides Multiple Listing Services to Realtors in parts of Metro Vancouver north of the Fraser River, plus Pemberton and Whistler, and deals with complaints from the public including disclosure problems, problems between agents, and problems between members. “The only thing the Real Estate Board can do is determine whether or not its members have violated its own code of ethics,” said Morrison.

There are 11 Real Estate boards throughout the province, each with its own membership, rules and bylaws.

Larry Buttress, deputy executive director of the The Real Estate Council of B.C., the body responsibl­e for enforcing the provincial Real Estate Services act, said the council is also hoping to increase their own monetary fines, a request they made in December 2014. “We have asked the provincial government for the levels of those fines to be increased but that requires an amendment to the Real Estate Services Act. We have struck an independen­t advisory group to review issues around real estate licensee conduct and to create recommenda­tions for increased public protection. We anticipate that the recommenda­tions will increase the levels of fines that are available to us as well.”

Buttress estimated that in 2015, the council issued 111 discipline orders throughout the province, ranging from reprimands up to licence cancellati­ons. Currently, the council can issue monetary fines to a maximum of $10,000 to individual agents and $20,000 for a brokerage.

In February, 2016 the council announced that Carolyn Rogers would chair an independen­t advisory group that would examine issues that enhance public protection, including legislativ­e limits on penalties and the issues such as “shadow flipping.”

Her group’s interim report is expected by April 8, with a full report by the end of May.

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