News Bulletin - October 1, 2020

Form Changes
Verifying Licence Status
For Sale By Owner & Brokerage/Designated Agent Relationships
Restrictive Covenants
Audit Update
PDS Clarification

Minor Changes to Forms

The Board of Directors recently approved minor changes to eight forms as recommended by the Forms Committee. The forms affected include:

• Form 100 – Working with the Real Estate Industry
• Form 200 – Seller Brokerage Agreement
• Form 201 – Seller Designated Brokerage Agreement
• Form 203 – Mere Posting Service Agreement
• Form 300 – Buyer Brokerage Agreement
• Form 301 – Buyer Designated Brokerage Agreement
• Form 404 – Vacant Land Schedule
• Form 431 – Water and Septic Schedule

The updated forms will become available to the industry on October 1st, 2020 and become mandatory on January 1st, 2021.

The NSAR has been provided with the forms so they can be added to WEBForms®. VIEW CHANGES HERE

Request for Forms

If you are a licensee and member of the NSAR, using an electronic signature software program, and wish to receive the revised eight forms as a PDF for administrative purposes, please send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to have the link sent to you.

Verifying Licence Status

The 2019-2020 licensing cycle ended yesterday. There were a number of individuals who did not renew their real estate licence. There were also a number of individuals who submitted licence terminations. To ensure you are working with licensed individuals, use the Licensee Search function on our website.

For Sale By Owner & Brokerage/Designated Agent Relationships

The Commission regularly deals with questions from licensees and consumers regarding different relationships a brokerage can offer when dealing with For Sale By Owner’s (FSBO) sellers. There are a range of services that a brokerage/designated agent can provide to a customer or to a client.

To read our full article "For Sale By Owner & Brokerage/Designated Agent Relationships," click HERE.

Agreement of Purchase & Sale – Clause 3 - Restrictive Covenants

In the Agreement of Purchase and Sale, Clause 3, seller’s obligations includes a provision for the seller to provide restrictive covenants that may affect the property to the buyer. If this clause is checked off and accepted by the parties, this becomes a condition of the Agreement of Purchase and Sale.

Initially, the NSREC Forms Committee required an offer to be countered to remove the restrictive-covenant condition if checked and no restrictive covenants existed. This was to protect the seller’s interest by ensuring clarity in the agreement. NSREC staff relayed this requirement when asked by licensees.

Recently, the committee met and reviewed this condition. The committee decided that if the restrictive-covenant condition is checked and no restrictive covenants exist, the condition doesn’t need to be countered because it doesn’t apply. If the seller wants to counter the condition to make it clear there are no restrictive covenants, it is still compliant.

Notice to Brokers: Audit Update

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic the NSREC’s Board of Directors decided at their April meeting to modify the audit policy to conduct modified trust audits only.

At their September meeting, the Board of Directors decided to reintroduce a limited sample of transaction files to be reviewed for those brokerages that are selected for a brokerage audit. Therefore, as of December 1, 2020 brokers will be required to provide a limited sample of transaction files to the auditor to be reviewed for those who are selected to have a modified brokerage audit. Brokerages will be required to relay these transaction files to the Commission electronically. A rating will not be issued for the transaction file review portion of the audit; however, the broker will be provided with a list of discrepancies, if any identified, per transaction file reviewed.

As the NSREC transitions back to the regular audit policy, we will be carrying out surveys to brokers for the purpose of collecting their storage methods of both the trust and transaction files. Please stay tuned for the survey as we value your feedback.

Property Disclosure Statement – Clause 7

We have been notified by brokers that there is some confusion amongst licensees with how sellers are to complete clause 7 of the PDS, specifically clause 7.4 & 7.6 Sewage Disposal.

To read our full article "Property Disclosure Statement – Clause 7," click HERE.