Certification

Brossard, May 9, 2003 – The Association des courtiers et agents immobiliers du Québec (ACAIQ) has awarded the first Québec Real Estate Brokerage Award to Mr. Paul E. Myre, chartered real estate agent. The award ceremony was held on April 29, 2003 in Laval as part of the Association’s convention.

The ACAIQ created the Québec Real Estate Brokerage Award in order to recognize a real estate agent who contributed in multiple ways to raising and modernizing the standards of practice of the profession. Nominees are evaluated based on four main criteria, i.e. commitment, behaviour, skill and influence. The Québec Real Estate Brokerage Award consists in a bronze medal and a pin symbolizing an immovable under the sign of elevation, cooperation and success.

Recognized for his involvement in the business community in Montréal, Laval and the Laurentians, Paul E. Myre heads the firm Myre Pageau & Associés of Blainville, specializing in industrial and commercial real estate development and investment. Formerly a manager at Bell Canada, he left the company in the mid-70’s to go into real estate.

With his wife, Paul E. Myre then founded Les immeubles TMS inc in Sainte-Thérèse, then successively opened three branches in Saint-Eustache, Saint-Jérôme and Terrebonne. At the beginning of the 1980’s, he acquired two Re/Max establishments in Montréal and Sainte-Thérèse. Professional achievements of note include the development of major industrial parks and shopping centers in Boisbriand, Sainte-Thérèse, Blainville and Chambly.

In addition to his participation in many large scale projects, Mr. Myre has greatly distinguished himself through his social and community involvement. In 1984, he became Chairman of the Montréal Real Estate Board and, three years later, he was named to the same position for the Chambre de commerce de Thérèse-de-Blainville. He was also honorary chairman of the Multiple Sclerosis Carnation Campaign and co-chairman of the 1999-2000 fundraising campaign for the Fondation de l’Hôtel-Dieu de Saint-Jérôme, for which he collected over 3 million dollars.

Paul E. Myre’s nomination for the Québec Real Estate Brokerage Award was supported, among others, by three heartfelt testimonials by Elie Fallu, Mayor of Sainte-Thérèse, Me Marc D’Aoust, Chairman of Fondation de l’Hôtel-Dieu de Saint-Jérôme, and Charles Le Borgne, Commissioner of Société de développement économique Thérèse-de-Blainville. Outstanding commitment, leadership, probity, integrity, reliability and incorruptibility are some of the words used to describe Mr. Myre’s personality.

The Association des courtiers et agents immobiliers du Québec (ACAIQ) is the body in charge of real estate brokerage in Québec. Its mission is to protect the public by overseeing the professional activities of all real estate brokers and agents practicing in Québec, as stipulated by the Real Estate Brokerage Act. The Association’s membership includes approximately 12,000 real estate brokers and agents.

The organization is administrated by a board of directors made up of eleven members. Of these, nine are certificate holders elected by their peers. The other two directors are not real estate brokers or agents and are appointed by the Government after consultation with various socio-economic groups.

In recent years, the ACAIQ has observed a steady increase in the number of candidates to the Association’s certification examinations. In order to adequately meet demand in the Greater Montréal and surrounding areas, the Association will hold examination sessions in December and January for a large number of candidates.

These sessions will be held on December 15 and 16, 2003 and again on January 14 and 15, 2004 at the Radisson Hotel (Longueuil-Montréal), 999 De Sérigny in Longueuil. Please note that the dates of December 16 and January 15 will be maintained only if there are enough applicants.

We remind you that candidates must submit to the Association, at least fifteen days before the date of the examination, a complete file including their application for certification. The official transcript from the teaching institution where the candidate received his real estate brokerage training must be sent to the Association at least five days before the examination date.

You are already aware of your obligation to complete a notice of disclosure to disclose the existence of any conflict of interest in a real estate transaction, whether in the performance of your duties or not (section 22 of the Real Estate Brokerage Act). However, real estate brokers and agents sometimes have trouble completing this notice of disclosure, especially when it comes to the identity of the intended contracting party and the documents to be transmitted to the ACAIQ. To help you identify the intended contracting party, we have added the following to section II of the form: “Identify the contracting party to whom you must disclose your quality as certificate holder and not the person with whom you have a connection”.

You must transmit a copy of the duly completed and signed notice of disclosure as well as a copy of the promise to purchase and its attachments to the ACAIQ as soon as possible, i.e. before the date of signing of the notarized act. The purpose of the disclosure is to create a level playing field for all parties; it is therefore crucial that the intended contracting party receive the information before the promise to purchase.

Failure to complete a notice of disclosure can have disciplinary and civil repercussions. For a clearer understanding of your obligations, we suggest reading the following articles:
Who is this mysterious prospective contracting party?, ACAIQ Magazine / October 1999
Cottage, lake, rosebushes Goodbye to all that!, ACAIQ Magazine / September 1994
When agents sell their own homes / ACAIQ Magazine / March 2001

The Association of Real Estate License Law Officials (ARELLO) has awarded the ARELLO Education Award to the Association des courtiers et agents immobiliers du Québec for its excellent continuing education program. Mr. Claude Barsalou, Assistant General Manager of the ACAIQ, received the commemorative plaque from Mr. Scott Taylor, president of Arello, at a ceremony held in October as part of the ARELLO annual convention in Portland, Oregon.

ARELLO is made up of most organizations involved in regulating the practice of real estate brokerage in the United States and Canada, in addition to a great number of organizations from South America, Central America, the Caribbean, Australia, Asia and Africa. Its mission is to help its members administer real estate brokerage laws aimed at ensuring the protection of the public. In addition to encouraging cooperation and the exchange of information between member organizations, ARELLO is active in research in the area of enforcement of real estate brokerage laws and also defines standards concerning basic and continuing education programs as well as certification examinations.

This is a great honour to be bestowed on the Association whom, in 2000, adopted a continuing education policy outlining the broad directions and principles that would guide its actions in subsequent years. It is interesting to note that it only took three years for the ACAIQ to get this recognition from its peers. The response from real estate brokers and agents to the education activities offered by the Association was well above expectations. By the end of this year, some 300 education activities will have been held, for a total of 10,000 participants. The following chart shows the yearly growth in the number and variety of activities offered and the number of participants they attracted.

Only a few days left before December 10 deadline to send your renewal form duly completed and your payment to the Association. Requests received after December 31 cannot be processed as a renewal and will be considered a new issue, with the corresponding fee.

No change has been made to the certificate renewal forms this year. Much of the information to be provided by the applicant is already printed on the form; all the member has to do is check for accuracy and enter any necessary corrections. You can check the status of your certificate renewal online on the Association's extranet site at:

A total of 11,265 certificates were renewed at the end of 2003, where the ACAIQ had 11,264 members at the beginning of the year. In addition, the number of candidates to the entrance examination increased by almost 20% this year. A total of 1,897 candidates took the affiliated agent examination and 205 wrote the chartered broker or agent examination. The success rates were 86.6% and 62% respectively.

Starting this month, the Professional Inspection Department offers startup sessions for all new chartered real estate brokers. These sessions are replacing the first inspection that used to be done at the broker’s establishment in the year his certificate was issued.

In order to provide beginning brokers with the tools and advice they need quickly, these startup sessions will be given to several brokers at once and will be facilitated by an inspector. These sessions will be given in an informal atmosphere using a format that promotes exchanges and focuses on real-life scenarios on these major themes: setting up and maintaining records and registers, managing trust accounts, conflicts of interest, disclosure notices to be completed before any commitment, disclosure of compensation agreements, and compensation methods.

All new brokers will be invited to attend a startup session, at their convenience, in lieu of what used to be the first inspection visit.

For more information on date availability, please contact the Professional Inspection Department at:(450) 462-9800, ext. 476 or 1 800 440-7170

A chartered real estate broker’s certificate may be issued to a legal person (a company), a partnership (an association of persons) or a natural person. A real estate broker which is a legal person or a partnership must be represented for purposes of applying the REBA by a person called the representative. Unlike a natural person who is a chartered real estate broker, a partnership or legal person cannot pass academic courses or acquire real estate brokerage experience. A natural person who is a real estate broker holds the certificate personally (in his own name), whereas a legal person or partnership receives a certificate through a natural person. This natural person is identified by the REBA as the representative.

We are not talking about a sales representative or a real estate agent who represents a broker, but a natural person who bears the title of representative for purposes of the REBA. The representative of a broker which is a partnership or legal person is obligatorily a natural person who has the qualifications required to be a holder of a real estate broker’s certificate. This is one of the first requirements stipulated by Section 7 of the REBA.

A representative is necessary to a partnership or legal person that is a chartered real estate broker because the holder of the real estate broker’s certificate is the legal entity constituted by the partnership or legal person. The representative’s qualifications allow the legal entity to pursue the activity of broker and engage in brokerage transactions. But what happens if the representative himself wishes to engage in brokerage transactions as a real estate agent or an affiliated real estate broker? He is permitted to act as a chartered real estate agent or affiliated real estate broker on condition that he respects Section 63 of the By-law of the ACAIQ, which requires the representative to personally hold one of these certificates. This is simply one more example of the well-known principle of the legal and practical distinction between legal persons and natural persons.

This is a central requirement for an establishment: