FVREB members have been waiting for the day when they could get formal instruction about the changes to the Real Estate Services Act, and that day has arrived at last.
The Rule Changes: Agency & Disclosure course was developed in partnership with the UBC Sauder Real Estate Division to provide licensees with the information they need to understand and comply with Rule changes that will be in effect on June 15, 2018. The course will provide instruction on the technical requirements of the Rules changes, the rationale for the changes, and what the changes may mean in your day-to-day practice.
Course registration dates
Early registration for managing brokers became available May 18 through to May 25. Council has also provided a Managing Brokers Toolkit available on its website.
Starting May 25, 2018, Council will send other licensed members a registration link for the course in priority order, based on their licence expiry dates. This way those licensees who need to renew their licences earlier—between October and December 2018—can access the course sooner, and also ensure that demand on the course registration system does not exceed capacity. The licence renewal dates below correspond to the date the licensee may expect the invitation to register.
- May 25 for Oct-Dec 2018 renewals
- May 28 for Jan-Mar 2019 renewals
- May 31 for Apr-Jun 2019 renewals
- June 4 for Jul-Sep 2019 renewals
- June 6 for Oct-Dec 2019 renewals
- June 8 for Jan-Mar 2020 renewals
- June 11 for Apr-Jun 2020 renewals
- June 13 for Jul-Sep 2020 renewals
Council has noted that wide distribution of registration links could potentially result in an overload of the registration system, so have encouraged licensees and others to respect the phased registration plan by not sharing registration links.
The Council is cautioning that if your licence expires on or after October 1, 2018, you need to act quickly to complete the course prior to applying for licence renewal.
Licensed strata managers do not have to take the course if they are only providing strata management services.
Course content
The Rule Changes: Agency & Disclosure course is a self-paced online course. It will likely require five to six hours for you to complete and must be completed within three days from the day you register for it. Otherwise you’ll be required to re-register and pay the course fee again. The course fee is $75. The five modules of the course are:
1 – A Primer on Agency
2 – Disclosure of Representation in Trading Services
3 – Disclosure of Risks to Unrepresented Parties
4 – Disclosure to Sellers of Expected Remuneration
5 – The Ban on Dual Agency and Dual Agency Disclosure
Course completion
Each module includes a lesson (including an introductory video) and an assessment. In order to proceed through the modules, learners must complete the lesson and obtain a mark of 70 per cent, or higher on the module assessment.
The course must be completed within three days of registering, or the learner will be required to re-register. Once you have completed and passed the module assessments, you will receive a completion letter which you must submit to the Council at the time you apply to renew your licence. Council has cautioned licensees not to submit the completion letter to the Council before completing their renewal application.
The course has been designed so that licensees will be better able to communicate effectively with the public about disclosure and agency requirements which will enable them to make informed decisions throughout a real estate transaction process.
If you have questions about the new course, how to register, or the new REP requirement, contact Council’s Education department at education@recbc.ca.