New WEBForms now available - what you need to know about this change

You can now access the Canadian Real Estate Association’s (CREA) new WEBForms.

Next time you log in to WEBForms, you’ll be presented with the option to switch to the new system. The old version of WEBForms will continue to be available to you until January 1, after which it'll no longer be accessible.

The new WEBForms features a new home screen layout and a different design and workflow. Take the time now to familiarize yourself with the new system. Don’t wait until the last minute to learn how to use it!

“While this is a CREA initiative, we know how important the WEBForms service is to you and we’re focused on working with you every step of the way to get you the information and resources you need to make this change the best experience possible,” Brad Scott, Board CEO said. “We’re in regular communication with CREA to pass on your feedback and to advocate for improvements as issues are identified.”

Since the launch, members have raised two key issues about the new WEBForms:

1. Not all templates have been transferred from the old platform; and
2. There’s a space limit when you try to create a new contract clause.

We’ve notified CREA about these issues. We’ll notify you when your templates have been transferred. CREA’s working to address the space limit for new clauses but doesn’t anticipate a fix before the end of this year.

You’ll find a more detailed explanation of the clause issue, and how to mitigate it, in our WEBForms Transition Guide under the section ‘Managing Clause Fields’.

We recommend that you begin using the new WEBForms for any new deals you begin working on. This will ensure you have a record of your current transactions on the new system.

To help you with this change, here are four actions you can take right away:

1. Learn to use the new system

To help you learn the new system, visit our resource page where you can find videos, guides, and other helpful resources. Take the time to use these resources and get comfortable with the new WEBForms as soon as possible.

We’ve developed a transition guide that contains a basic overview, tips,  FAQs, and step-by-step instructions and videos showing you how to perform common tasks. We’re also working to develop a WEBForms course and webinar—watch for more on these in the coming weeks.

2. Choose what old contracts, or kits, you want to manually transfer to the new WEBForms

If you store old contracts and other paperwork from completed deals (referred to as “transaction kits”) in the old WEBForms, CREA won’t transfer them to the new system. CREA tells us that there are over one million kits in the current version of WEBForms, so automatically transferring these files isn’t manageable.

You can manually transfer your own kits to the new system, one at a time, as PDF files until December 31. If these records are important to you, we strongly encourage you to review the contracts you store in WEBForms and transfer, save, or print them so you have a permanent record of your transactions.

3. Reinsert your contract clauses into your templates in the new WEBForms

CREA continues to work on transferring your templates. We'll let you know as soon as your templates have been transferred. 

Because they’re being transferred over separately, you’ll need to reinsert your custom clauses into your contract templates in the new system.

4. Use the new WEBForms to create any new templates or clauses

While you can use the existing version of WEBForms to create kits and complete transactions until the end of this year, after today you’ll need to use the updated version to create any new contract templates or clauses.

Questions? Call our Help Desk at 604-730-3020.

ICYMI: Using the updated Privacy Notice and Consent form

An updated Privacy Notice and Consent form is now available on WEBForms. You're required to use this form when dealing with clients and unrepresented parties.

What’s new

The updated form makes it easier to explain to consumers the primary ways their personal information will be collected and used.

It also specifies four secondary uses for personal information that the consumer can choose to opt out of:

2a) The REALTOR® to whom you're giving this consent (or their brokerage) may communicate with you in the future to determine whether you require additional real estate services.

2b) The Realtor to whom you're giving this consent (or their brokerage) may communicate with you to provide information about other products or services that may interest you.

2c) Other Realtors may communicate with you to determine if you require additional real estate services.

2d) The boards, and other Realtors or their brokerage (and survey firms on their behalf) may communicate with you to participate in surveys.

These four secondary uses aren't new. What’s new is that, rather than having the consumer strike through the wording of an optional purpose to deny consent, they’ll now initial the boxes beside each use they don’t want (i.e. “opt out” of that use).

What happens if a client wants to opt out of any of these secondary uses?

Regardless of whether a client opts out of any secondary uses or not, REALTORS® and their brokerages must keep a signed copy of the Privacy Notice and Consent form in the file for each transaction.

Where either, or both, of 2a and/or 2b are opted out of, you’ll need to ensure your brokerage keeps a record to ensure compliance with the clients’ request for privacy. Check with your Managing Broker for how this is done in your office.

A signed copy of the form only needs to be sent to the Board where either, or both, clauses 2c and/or 2d have been opted out of. If a seller is opting out, send the signed form to the Board with the listing or at the time of broker loading. If buyer is opting out, send the signed form to the Board, with the MLS® number, once the sale contract becomes unconditional and is being reported to the Board.

The Board must be notified of a seller’s opt-out of 2c to ensure that the listing is properly “Privacy Protected”, meaning that the listing information cannot be used by other members for solicitation purposes. Similarly, the Board must be notified of a consumer’s opt-out of 2d to ensure the Board doesn't include that consumer in future surveys. 

Please don't send us the signed form if both 2c and 2d are left blank (i.e. not initialed).

Resources

The BC Real Estate Association (BCREA) will send an email to all REALTORS® in BC the week of August 19 with a link to a video tutorial on using the updated form. 

Questions?

Email Arnelle Starnaman at astar@rebgv.org, or James Lindow at jlindow@rebgv.org.

Post your rental listings on the MLS®

Did you know that you can post your rental listings on Paragon?

Rental listings are bound by the same Rules of Cooperation as other listings, which include the need to specify remuneration and mark the listing as “rented” once that has occurred.

You’ll enter the listing information yourself in the rentals section of Paragon. Once it's on Paragon, your rental listing will flow through to REALTOR.ca the same day. You can search for rental listings on Paragon in the same way you search for other listings.

Approved reciprocity websites that choose to include rental listings will also receive rental listing data once it’s configured. This hasn’t been set up for Virtual Office Websites (VOWs) yet but will be in the future.

Licensing for rental services

The trading services licence you have from the Real Estate Council of BC (Council) allows you to post rental listings and collect initial deposits (e.g., security and pet damage) from tenants who you’ve secured for a landlord or property manager.

Any ongoing property management beyond what’s described in a trading services licence (e.g., collecting rent, managing tenant issues) requires an additional rental property management licence from the Council.

To learn more, check out the information on Council’s website about these two licences and what they allow you to do. You can also review this webinar:

Questions? Email Jennie deFoy at jdefoy@rebgv.org.

The Ethics Guy®: What could possibly go wrong?

A member writes, “I’d like to get your thoughts on licensees using technology to change the standard language in the Contract of Purchase and Sale form without adding initials to the changes being made. For example, a licensee preparing an offer on the standard Contract of Purchase and Sale using a program to “white out” standard language, replacing it with new language. Do you recommend the buyers initial that change to highlight it? Is there a breach of ethics if they do not highlight (or initial) the change?”

Sheesh. Where do I start?

Parties can agree to any language they want in a contract, assuming the contract is otherwise legal. You can make a good deal with someone, or you can make a bad deal with someone. It’s up to you. There’s no law against stupidity (or brilliance, for that matter). But for a contract to be enforceable, it has to be properly executed. This includes putting initials beside all the changes made to it after it was first written.

That’s the easy answer, which shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.

But what if a “clean” standard form contract is presented to the other parties with the altered terms—that is, without those changes being obvious? Is there an obligation to point out those altered terms and to get them initialled?

First, “altered standard form” is a contradiction in terms. And what may be legal and what many may think is moral aren’t always the same thing. Since buying, selling, and listing real estate is a tad more complicated than buying a phone or a car, we’ve come to rely on standard form contracts to manage the risk in these agreements. If the parties agree to use a standard form containing language they know, then all that’s left to deal with are dates, money, and contractual terms specific to the parties.

So when a buyer’s agent shows up at your seller’s front door waiving our standard Contract of Purchase and Sale, I doubt you’d give the 10-point blurry fine-print clauses much of a look because you’d assume there hadn’t been any changes made to them.

It would come as a shock, then, to find out later that the buyer’s agent had changed a term in the fine-print clauses and not told you. At presentation, you and your seller assumed the contract’s language was, well, standard. To your dismay, your seller’s signature at the bottom of the page has now bound them to the altered contract’s terms. “Not fair,” you say. It’s a potential mess, so let’s look at the issue from different angles.

The industry has developed a legally enforceable Contract of Purchase and Sale, which includes provisions for the members’ and boards’ collection, use, and disclosure of the consumers’ personal information. These contracts give peace of mind because everyone is familiar with the standard terms (or should be, courtesy of their REALTOR®). The BC Real Estate Association’s Standard Forms Committee creates, maintains, and vets its standard forms on behalf of all BC Realtors. The Committee’s phalanx of lawyers and experienced practitioners ensure these contracts are the best they can be, reflecting the latest legal and regulatory requirements.

So how do you know you’re dealing with a standard form? Look for the logos of your board and the BCREA (and the Canadian Bar Association) on the top of page 1 on the Contract of Purchase and Sale, and for the copyright notice and WEBForms reference at the bottom of every page. 

When a Realtor drafts a contract for their client to sign, everyone expects a high standard of professional care. If the Realtor also has an agency relationship, the expected standard is ratcheted up even higher. If your client so instructs, you could, for example, modify some contract clauses in the hope the other party will agree. If everyone does agrees and initials the changed clauses, you’ll end up with a modified standard form contract.

Such changes must be made following the rules, however. It would be a breach of the REALTOR® Code and Rules of Cooperation, specifically, Rule 12.01, to use a software program/application to modify the standard form Contract of Purchase and Sale without removing all logos, copyrights, WEBForms references, and any other references indicating it is THE standard form.

In short, removing the logos and notices signals that the standard form contains altered language, but is that enough?

You might argue, “It’s obviously no longer a standard form; the logos are gone. It’s not my job to explain a contract to the other side—they have their own Realtor for that.”

Maybe a judge would accept that argument, but even so, modifying the standard form in this way is not recommended and is of questionable morality. But morality aside, your Professional Conduct Committee may conclude you’ve been deceptive. You don’t want that, and you don’t want to risk a complaint being made against you. This year alone the committee it has published three cases where deceptive activity resulted in members being expelled from the Board. Who’d want to go there? And if there were a complaint, it’s a certainty it would end up at Council. I doubt Council would be pleased, either.

REALTOR® Code Article 3—Primary Duty to Client—requires us to act in our clients’ best interests, but not at the expense of dealing fairly with others. And Article 28 requires us to respect the intellectual property rights of boards and associations.

Being a party to the surreptitious changing of a contract without notification would not, I think, be considered by many as fair dealing. Some might use words like “fraud” or more mild words like “lying” or “being a party to a falsehood.” And what would the public think? Narrow legal arguments don’t often play well in the court of public opinion, a place where our collective reputation lives and dies.

Getting back to our member’s question of whether the altered clauses need to be initialled: “need” doesn’t mean “should.” But in this situation, I’d want to get those altered clauses initialled, subject, of course, to my clients’ instructions. And if their instructions were “don’t point them out,” which would result in no initials and a potential deception, I’d be having a long, hard conversation with myself about whether I could continue my relationship with that client. It’s a tough call. Look before you leap, and talk to your managing broker.

Note

While we’re focusing on altered standard forms and contract, remember that the Multiple Listing Contract must not be altered per Rules of Cooperation, 3.03. Altered MLS® listing contracts are unacceptable to the Board as evidenced by recent Professional Conduct Committee disciplinary decisions.

Renovictions, updated PTT fact sheet, and using RRSPs for down payments

Renovictions – what you and your clients need to know

If you’re involved in helping clients buy or sell tenanted properties, two new Residential Tenancy Branch policy guidelines on renovictions will interest you.

Read more.

We’ve updated our PTT fact sheet

The Property Transfer Tax (PTT) is a complex tax and what a buyer pays depends on different variables. Our fact sheet provides easy-to-understand details.

Read more.

Over three million Canadians have used RRSPS to buy a home

In the mid 1980s, REALTORS® came up with a novel idea: let first-time buyers use part of their RRSPs for a down payment. Since then, three million Canadians have participated in the Home Buyers’ Plan.

Read more.