New Requirements for Contract Assignments

The provincial government announced today that beginning May 16, 2016, new rules relating to the assignment of real estate contracts will come into effect. The new provincial rules are intended to help real estate consumers make informed decisions about contract assignments before accepting an offer on their property.

With these new rules, real estate licensees who draft offers to buy property must include two separate terms about contract assignment in the offer:

• this contract must not be assigned without the written consent of the seller; and
• the seller is entitled to any profit resulting from an assignment of the contract by the buyer or any subsequent assignee.

If the prospective buyer wants to remove these terms from the offer, the buyer’s licensee must notify the seller that the terms have been removed from the offer. The new rules announced today are intended to strengthen the requirement under the Real Estate Services Act that licensees act only in the best interests of their clients. The BC government took action to regulate contract assignments in March 2016, following reports in the media that some real estate licensees were not acting in their clients’ best interests in relation to assignments. The Real Estate Council of British Columbia has also taken action, by initiating an Independent Advisory Group to develop wide-ranging recommendations on measures to strengthen the enforcement of conduct requirements for real estate licensees and increase consumer protection.

Source: Media Release: New Contract Assignment Rules, The Real Estate Council of British Columbia, published May 10, 2016

Read more:

New real estate contract rules protect sellers, BC Gov News, Victoria, published Tuesday, May 10, 2016
Contract Assignments FAQ, The Real Estate Council of British Columbia