La Facture shines a light on the protection provided by real estate brokers
Published on October 21, 2018
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.