TREB threatens legal action for realtors violating sales data rules
TORONTO — A lawyer representing the Toronto Real Estate Board says it is considering whether to fight for adjustments to a Competition Tribunal order that enabled the publication of Greater Toronto Area home sales data.
TREB lawyer Brian Facey says the board representing 50,000 GTA realtors has yet to decide if it will try to modify the order that came into effect when the Supreme Court refused to hear a case dealing with the data’s online publication last week.
The Supreme Court’s dismissal of the case forced TREB to allow the data’s publication, but only through password-protected webpages called virtual office websites (VOWs) that realtors allow clients to access.
In the wake of the dismissal, real estate companies rushed to post the data online under password protections, but a few posted the numbers outside of VOWs.