Certification

PRACTICE

From January to July 2004, Denis Talbot, a former real estate agent who had not renewed his certificate expired on December 31, 2003, performed various real estate brokerage acts by acting as intermediary in the sale of one of his friends’ property.

The people responsible for our road network at the Ministère des Transports noted that many real estate signs were erected within the roads’ right-of-way. Some real estate brokers or agents have had their signs disappear shortly after erecting them and have filed complaints with the police.

You can’t talk about the Directors’ role without referring to the role of the Board of Directors itself. Whether it is the Board of the Association des courtiers et agents immobiliers du Québec or that any other company or corporation (legal person), the role of a board of directors is to advise. The ACAIQ Board, for its part, works to ensure the Association’s continuity and, in so doing, has very specific responsibilities under the law.

At the ACAIQ, the Board of Directors is responsible for hiring the Association’s President and CEO and for ensuring that this individual carries out the main strategic directions set by the Directors while fulfilling his obligations under the law. The Board therefore acts as an advisor that establishes the framework in which the Association will operate and the conduct it will adopt.

Directors should be people who have insight into the practice of real estate brokerage and whose actions are consistent with the Association’s public protection mission and the practice of real estate brokerage. They must anticipate where real estate brokerage is going and suggest tools to adapt practices to current times, including appropriate regulations and forms, continuing education, etc. Directors must make sure that the rules of professional ethics are clearly understood and followed by real estate brokers and agents.

On several occasions already, the Board of Directors has ratified major strategic plans extending over several years that identified short and mid-term directions to guide the Association towards its stated objectives. For example, it was the Directors who decided to put emphasis on continuing education as a way to help real estate agents improve their practice. They also chose to help members embrace technology by developing the acaiq.com website, the Extranet Synbad as well as real estate brokerage e-forms.

The role of the Directors is not to manage the Association’s internal affairs, but rather to ensure that the Association’s finances are being properly managed. The Board has been faced with tough decisions at times, including a major raise in annual fees in 2000, intended to give the Association increased visibility. Like previous media campaigns, the major television campaign currently airing 35 information capsules on the TVA network, is one example of what this increase has enabled us to do.

The ACAIQ has now become a key player in the field of real estate brokerage, in the eyes of both the public and the media. This has had all sorts of repercussions on the organization, due in part to a major increase in the number of calls from the public and from real estate brokers and agents. This led Directors to accept major changes in administrative procedures, including the creation of the Assistance Service, a first for our type of organization. This move has proven very profitable by considerably reducing response times and allowing quick resolution of professional disputes.

Additionally, it is the Board of Directors that appoints the Association’s syndic and assistant syndics. This power of appointment necessarily entails a power of removal. However, the Board may not intervene in any way in the internal management of the Office of the Syndic, unless there are obvious signs that the latter’s management is deficient.