July 7th - 2006

OREA wins more time to comply with REBBA advertising changes

OREA scored a major victory for members recently with an extension to the REBBA 2002 advertising compliance deadline until the end of this year for the use of the words brokerages and brokers of record.

OREA scored a major victory for members recently with an extension to the REBBA 2002 advertising compliance deadline until the end of this year for the use of the words brokerages and brokers of record. This amendment will give real estate professionals enough time to replace business supplies as they run out rather than having to throw away tons of paper and millions of business cards.

Following a letter from OREA urging him to provide the profession with more time to comply with the advertising guidelines, Minister
of Government Services Gerry Phillips agreed to amend Section 36 of Ontario regulation 580/05 (the REBBA Code of Ethics) by
adding the following wording ". (4.1) clauses (4) (a) (b) do not apply to a registrant who advertises before January 1, 2007."

This amendment relates specifically to the terms used by a brokerage or broker of record in advertising materials and members now have until the end of the year to comply. All advertising must use the term "broker of record" or "real estate broker of record" to describe any broker of record referred to in the advertisement. As well, all advertising referring to brokerages must use the term "brokerage" or "real estate brokerage" to describe any brokerage referred to in the advertisement.

Among other changes, the guidelines also require that all advertising by registrants prominently identify the name of the relevant brokerage and provide contact information. Registrants must clearly and prominently identify themselves in all advertising using their registered names. Members must now be in compliance with all of the other advertising guidelines, as of April 1, 2006. You can see the complete advertising guidelines link on www.reco.on.ca for more information.

To help members understand the new advertising rules, OREA has recently updated its continuing education course "Getting It Right the First Time: Advertising Guidelines for the R.E. Professional." This three-hour seminar gives an overview of specific sections of the Competition Act, REBBA, 2002, Business Practices Act, the REBBA Code of Ethics and CREA’s REALTOR® Code of Ethics and Standards of Business Practice with regards to all advertising. For more about the advertising course, visit the continuing education section at http://www.oreacollege.com/.

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For more information contact

Ontario Real Estate Association

Jean-Adrien Delicano

Manager, Media Relations

JeanAdrienD@orea.com

416-445-9910 ext. 246

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