Duties and Obligations of the Broker

(offered in French only)

In principle, a contract should not terminate before the expiry date provided therein. However, the Civil Code states that, in the case of a contract for services, the client can unilaterally cancel it (Article 2125 of the Civil Code).

This is a central requirement for an establishment:

The REBA prescribes that every agent is assigned to an establishment and must report there.

The clause concerning the compensation, if any, that the seller will pay to the broker is, of course, very important. In particular, it is necessary to properly understand under what conditions such compensation will be due and as of when.

(offered in French only)

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.

The jurisprudence of the Discipline Committee of the Association shows that the involvement of real estate agents in the fabrication and use of false documents can take many forms, including:

Montréal, February 17, 2004 – The Association des courtiers et agents immobiliers du Québec (ACAIQ) is asking Government to implement, as soon as is feasible, a set of regulations for the building inspection practice. For a majority of people, the purchase of a home represents the greatest investment of a life time. An effective inspection aims at identifying any potential problems in order to ascertain the repairs that may be necessary, thus allowing the buyer to conclude his transaction with full knowledge of the facts and the buyer to greatly diminish the risk of a civil action for hidden defects.

Presently, to qualify as a building inspector, a person need not follow any particular training, nor is there any standardize code of deontology. Certain inspectors voluntarily subscribe professional liability insurance. While tens of thousands of inspections are conducted yearly by a few hundred persons in Quebec, the majority of these persons are no longer able to subscribe professional liability insurance. Indeed, the Quebec Association of Building Inspectors, at the present time, is no longer requiring of its members that they subscribe such a coverage for that very reason.

“Even though the building inspection practice is not legally regulated, a real estate agent must recommend to a buyer that he make his offer to purchase conditional on an inspection,” said Mr. Robert Nadeau, President and CEO of the ACAIQ. “ Given this situation, we have undertaken to define a minimum inspection standard to protect one and all, which standard, in fact, is the strictest in North America.”

While waiting on the Government to act, the ACAIQ and the Quebec Association of Building Inspectors (QABI) have provided forms to buyers and sellers of real estate that, once completed, include all of the relevant and required information (work conducted, plans, permit, invoices, warranties) for a just and successful transaction. Designed as a data collection tool, the Declaration by the seller of the immovable form enables the seller to describe, to the best of his knowledge, the major components of the property involved in the transaction. The ACAIQ believes that the Declaration by the seller of the immovable should, in the future, be an obligation imposed upon the seller under the offer to purchase.

Real estate brokers and agents have a duty to provide accurate and verified information. Here are a few handy Web links and telephone numbers to facilitate the verification process.