News Bulletin - October 13, 2017

New Brokerage Records and Production Policy 

Brokerage Records and Production Policy
At the September Board of Directors meeting, the Board approved a new Brokerage Records and Production Policy and also approved the associated Bylaw changes to support the Policy.

The new policy replaces the Electronic Storage Policy and it documents the storage and production of real estate and trust account records in paper and electronic format, including:

- Storage duration and format
- Organization of files
- Organization and legibility of records
- Repercussions of careless or haphazard records storage
- File security
- Production of files

Click here to view the new Brokerage Records and Production Policy.

The associated Bylaw changes, with the revisions shown in bold text, are as follows:

308
(a) Brokerages are required to maintain a service address in the province of Nova Scotia.
(b) Brokerages must maintain their paper records in Nova Scotia and if not stored at the brokerage office(s), the broker must notify the Commission of the storage location.

409
(e) When a broker fails to comply with the Brokerage Records Storage and Production Policy, the Commission, at the discretion of the Registrar, may issue an administrative penalty. The penalty may be of an amount up to and including the annual brokerage audit fee set out in Bylaw 403.

618
All real estate trade and trust account records shall be maintained in accordance with the Commission’s Records Storage and Production Policy.

619
(a) Repealed.

704
A broker or managing associate broker shall be responsible for:
(d) ensuring the required trust accounts, trust account records and transaction files are maintained in accordance with the Act, the Regulations, the Bylaw and the Commission’s Policies;

706
Each broker is required to keep all and any information, reports, files, documents, etc. that pertain to any real estate transaction and to have the information readily available as may be required by the Commission from time to time. Requests shall be in writing from the Commission and shall specify the format in which records are to be produced. This includes, but is not limited to, transaction files, trust records and employment records.

707
It is the responsibility of the broker to keep real estate trade and trust account records for a seven (7) year period.