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On Monday, March 22 2010, the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) announced it has passed amendments to the rules governing the use of the MLS system in Canada.
CREA has been the subject of a recent complaint from the Canadian Competition Bureau concerning the use of the MLS system – which CREA owns. According to the filing by the Bureau, CREA’s MLS policies are restrictive resulting in forcing people who want access to the MLS system to pay for other services they don’t want.
According to other reports, the changes passed by CREA will have an effect on their longstanding policy which dictates that the selling agent must act as the agent “throughout the entire time” of a listing contract.
In addition, the rule changes remove the stipulation which disallows listing a property without providing further service. These changes should make it easier for individual agents to negotiate more flexible terms with home sellers.
CREA claims the MLS rule changes passed on Monday address the Competition Bureau’s concerns. But a spokesman for the Bureau disagrees. According to CBC News, Greg Scott of the Competition bureau claims, “The rule changes passed by CREA amount to a blank cheque allowing CREA and its members to impose and enforce rules even more restrictive than the existing ones.”
There was no comment on this issue available on the CREA website.
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