The 2023 Code of Ethics includes a section entitled “Conscientious, Competent and Quality Service”.
Here are some Do’s and Don’ts from that section.
Do
- promote and protect the best interests of clients
- make reasonable efforts to ensure that the client understands the information and appreciates the reasonably foreseeable consequences of the decision
- provide conscientious, courteous and responsive service to clients
- demonstrate reasonable knowledge, skill, judgment and competence in providing service to clients
- demonstrate reasonable knowledge, skill, judgment and competence in providing opinions, advice, assistance or information to any person
- advise a person to obtain services from another person if the registrant is not able to provide the services with reasonable knowledge, skill, judgment and competence
Don’t
- provide services, opinions or advice to a self-represented party
- encourage a self-represented party to rely on the registrant’s knowledge, skill or judgment
- discourage a person from seeking a particular kind of service from another person, if the registrant lacks reasonable knowledge, skill, judgment and competence
- disclose to a third party any confidential information of a client without the client’s written consent
It is noteworthy that there are not two service levels, namely clients and customers. There are effectively two categories:
- clients
- other persons, or the public generally.
When it comes to self-represented parties, they are on their own. Under the prior Code of Ethics, these individuals were often bumped up to the “customer” class where a lower level of services would be provided, yet, the commission usually remained the same.
The entire customer role was poorly understand and inherently contained conflicts of interest. It was created by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) in the United States in order to permit the Brokerage to act for both Sellers and Buyers in the same transaction.
Now, that service level is gone!
Brian Madigan LL.B., Broker