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1. The duty to verify

1.1 Identity and legal capacity

1.2 Information on the immovable

1.2.1 Land Register

1.2.2 Municipality

1.2.3 Certificate of location


1. The duty to verify

A licensee must inform objectively the party he represents and all other parties to a transaction. That obligation extends to all the material facts relevant to the transaction and to its object, and must be fulfilled without exaggeration, concealment or misrepresentation (s. 85 RBR). For this purpose, he must gather the required information from various consulted sources.

Licensees also have an ethical obligation to verify the information provided to their clients and the general public to ensure its accuracy. Section 5 of the Regulation respecting brokerage requirements, professional conduct of brokers and advertising (RBR) requires that the licensee verify, according to generally accepted practices, the information provided to the public or to another licensee and be able at all times to prove the accuracy of the information. To do this, he must take steps to discover factors that may adversely affect the parties or the very object of the transaction, in accordance with section 84 of RBR.

Section 45 of the RBR obliges licensees to give the seller client a copy of the descriptive sheet for his own verification:

45. A licence holder must without delay give to the party represented a copy of every document containing data used to describe the immovable, enterprise or loan secured by immovable hypothec covered by the brokerage contract, using any medium capable of ensuring its integrity, accessibility, authenticity and intelligibility.

Moreover, under paragraph 2 of section 11 of the Regulation respecting records, books and registers, trust accounting and inspection of brokers and agencies, the document serving to prove the accuracy of information provided must be included in the records kept by the agency or licensee acting on his own account at his establishment.

It is therefore clear that the legislator wanted:

  1. the information provided to the public and to other licence holders to be accurate
  2. the licensee to always be able to prove it
  3. the documents attesting this accuracy to be kept in the record of the agency or licensee acting on his own account.

This is particularly in order to ensure that the public can make informed decisions and thus be better protected.

This duty to verify information must be respected throughout the buying or selling process, since the licensee or agency is liable once he affirms, publishes or allows this information to be provided to the public.

The duty to verify was clearly defined by the OACIQ Discipline Committee in the case Castiglia v. Duault 2020 CanLII 36583:

"The mandatory provisions of section 5 of the Regulation are clear and unambiguous regarding the primary obligation of the licensee to always verify and be able to demonstrate the accuracy of any information provided to the public.

In order to protect the public, this duty to verify information accuracy must be proactive and positive to obtain as much information as possible that is available and easily accessible, in order to fully understand and disclose the context of the immovable for sale. […]” (our emphasis).

Also, in the decision Gingras v. Doré 2019 CanLII 76904 (in French only), the defendant licensee was found guilty of several violations pertaining to the duty to verify. In its decision, the Discipline Committee stated the following:

"45] As a real estate professional, the broker's key role is to ensure that the transaction he is carrying out is fair and made with full knowledge of the facts for the parties who are bound through him.

[46] Therefore, as soon as he lists a property, he must verify the identity of the seller and the qualities and defects of the property being sold, both in terms of its physical and legal features.

[47] In today's modern society, the licensee has a number of tools available to him to easily carry out these verifications: Land Register, Enterprise Register, property tax accounts of each municipality, declarations by the seller, to name only a few."

Any relationship is primarily based on the trust established between the licensee and his client. However, to earn client's trust, the licensee must give him accurate information. This supposes that the licensee has taken the time to verify the information he provides.

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1.1 Identity and legal capacity

Licensees have basic obligations to verify the identity and legal capacity of the parties they represent and their representatives.

See section Verifying the identity and legal capacity of the represented party and its representative of the guideline on preventing money laundering and real estate fraud.

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Last updated on: December 13, 2022
Numéro d'article: 264830