La Facture shines a light on the protection provided by real estate brokers

The brokerage industry has long said that people are better protected when they sell with a real estate broker rather than directly to a buyer. But this isn’t true.

Few consumers really understand this protection: what it covers and how it works. Journalists working on Radio-Canada’s La Facture addressed this issue in the report “Qui du public ou des courtiers est le mieux protégé?” [Who’s better protected, the public or brokers?]

The conclusions are very interesting, with the report raising serious concerns about the governance of the OACIQ (Quebec’s self-regulatory real estate brokerage organization)—questions similar to those frequently raised by DuProprio.

• 5 facts you should know about protection 

One thing we learn in the program is that when a problem arises between a seller and a broker, the FARCIQ (Quebec’s real estate brokerage professional liability insurance fund) will use all the resources available to protect the broker.

The La Facture report raises an important issue: the protection the OACIQ talks about, especially in its ads, benefits brokers more than the public. The experiences related by sellers in the report are proof of this.