Selling Your Home Yourself > Legal Issues and Problems

As widely reported, the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) and the Competition Bureau have negotiated a resolution to the proceedings brought by the Competition Bureau regarding the MLS closed system of real estate listings for residential and commercial properties.

The agreement was recently ratified by CREA’s membership, as reported in the Globe and Mail.

The agreement will last for 10 years, as indicated on the Competition Bureau’s website.

The actual case before the Competition Tribunal can be found here.

As a practical effect, the move to selling your home yourself, without use of a realtor, is likely to gain in popularity.  Many homeowners wish to avoid realtor commission fees, typically in the range of 4-6% or higher.  One of the major impediments to homeowners selling their own home was the inability to broadcast their home’s availability on the MLS system.

There are legal problems, however, with selling your home yourself.

Our blog will review the common legal problems facing homeowners and purchasers, who sell their home themselves, on an ongoing basis.

For an interesting case that homeowners may wish to note, see our January 18, 2010 blog of a homeowner who sold a newly built home (with construction defects) and then was sued by the purchaser when those defects were discovered.  The seller sought and received a defence from his homeowner’s insurance policy in this lawsuit.

Gregory Chang
Toronto Insurance Lawyer