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6. Duty to supervise of the agency and its executive officer

The holder of an agency licence and the agency’s executive officer oversee the discipline of the licence holders who represent the agency and ensure that they act in accordance with the law.

They must ensure that the maintenance, conservation, use and destruction of records and registers are done in accordance with the regulations by implementing the following measures:

  • Analyze practices and activities to identify any that may be non-compliant;
  • Establish clear principles and standards to ensure, among other things, that brokers forward all the information and documentation required for the maintenance of records, books and registers without delay;
  • Ensure that practices and activities comply with established principles and standards.

The agency licence holder and the executive officer must develop, implement and enforce policies and procedures for the keeping, maintenance, conservation, use and destruction of records, books and registers including:

  • An effective and ongoing oversight procedure to ensure that brokers promptly provide the agency with all documentation and information required for the keeping of records, books and registers;
  • A procedure for auditing brokers’ records. The selection of records and items to be audited will depend on the risk criteria established by the agency. The procedure should include controls to ensure the quality of the drafting of fiduciary clauses by brokers in order to ensure the proper management of sums belonging to others;
  • A trust account management procedure that sets out all the steps to be followed in managing a sum and maintaining this type of account;
  • Policies and procedures regarding the maintenance, conservation, use and destruction of documents. These must respect the basic principles of information security, in addition to complying with the requirements of the Real Estate Brokerage Act and its regulations, as well as any other legal requirements by which brokers are bound in their practice, in particular the Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector. They must include:
    • rules for filing and naming documents;
    • management of access to records and documents according employee roles, regardless of the storage medium (paper or electronic);
    • document conservation periods;
    • destruction rules to ensure the confidentiality of documents and the information they contain, including documents held by brokers outside of the agency on any medium (e.g. cell phone, computer, filing cabinet, etc.);
  • EDM system policies and procedures, if applicable. These must detail the resources and tools in place to ensure proper use of the system by brokers and agency employees.

Where documents are digitized, they must also include:

  • procedures to ensure that records are complete, maintained in the same place and on the same medium;
  • documentation of the digitization steps;
  • implementation of quality control mechanisms;
  • conservation periods for source documents.
  • A procedure for using electronic signature solutions. The procedure must detail the situations in which it can be used, the obligation to inform the client of the content of the document he is about to sign and the process that follows, the forwarding of the documents to the agency, etc. If necessary, it can include restrictions on use;
  • A training program for licence holders, agency executive officers and their employees to ensure a clear understanding of the policies and procedures for the maintenance and conservation of records, books and registers;
  • Internal controls to ensure compliance with policies and procedures. This could include, for example, reviews (random or risk-based) of client records and licensee practices to ensure, among other things, the quality and compliance of the establishment’s records, books and registers.
Last updated on: November 21, 2022
Numéro d'article: 264782