In Smith v. Real Estate Council of Ontario (Div Court, 2024) the Divisional Court dismissed a JR challenging a RECO (Real Estate Council of Ontario) Appeal Panel disciplinary decision. These review cases are few in the courts.
Here the court considers the REKO Code of Ethics:
E. Was the Discipline Panel’s Decision that Ms. Smith violated the Code of Ethics reasonable?
[35] The Code of Ethics requires realtors to “treat every person the registrant deals with in the course of a trade in real estate fairly, honestly and with integrity”: Code of Ethics, s. 3. Realtors are required to “promote and protect the best interests” of their clients: Code of Ethics, s. 4. Realtors are also required to “provide conscientious service” and “demonstrate reasonable skill, judgment and competence”: Code of Ethics, s. 5. Finally, realtors must use their “best efforts to prevent error, misrepresentation, fraud or any unethical practice”: Code of Ethics, s. 38. The Discipline Panel found that Ms. Smith violated each of those provisions because she made statements about the property taxes and local improvement charge in the listing that she knew or ought to have known were inaccurate.
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