Vancouver twitter account targets ‘rogue’ realtors

By ThinkPol Staff

Inspired by Vancouver’s Airbnb-fighting Twitter user VISTRO, a social media account has started naming and shaming realtors who appear to breaching industry regulations.

BrettdrC^[1]https://twitter.com/brettdrc is outing realtors who are running Airbnb hotels in Vancouver in breach of City of Vancouver bylaws.

BrettdrC points out that Article 21 of the Canadian Real Estate Association Realtor Code of Conduct^[2]http://www.crea.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/The-REALTOR-Code.pdf stipulates that:

21. A REALTOR® shall not engage in conduct that is disgraceful, unprofessional or unbecoming of a REALTOR®.

The Interpretation of Article 21 goes on to state:

21.1 This Article is intended to deal with conduct that, having regard to all of the circumstances, is
egregious in nature and goes beyond simple error.

21.2 “Conduct” in this Article is not restricted to conduct in the course of providing real estate
services.

Flouting City bylaws, in the the Twitter user’s opinion, is a clear violation of Article 21.

BrettdrC is also bringing attention to the requirement for real estate agents to obtain a separate licence to manage property under the Real Estate Service Act of BC ^[3]http://www.bclaws.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/04042_01, and points out that many realtors seem to be running Airbnb hotels without such a licence.

“We are in a housing crisis,” BrettdrC explained his motivations to ThinkPol. “But what really irks me is how our real estate industry is using it to make them rich. By begging for supply but selling product to non residents and putting much needed inventory on Airbnb instead or renting out to locals.”

“[Our] objective is to keep [real estate] agents and [the] industry honest,” BrettdrC added. “Not use this crisis to make them further rich by doing things they aren’t supposed to be doing. I’d also like [City of Vancouver] to recognize the Airbnb problem and [Revenue] Canada to make sure they are getting tax from earnings.”

Most of the realtors outed by BrettdrC offered multiple units, with one listing as many as seven Airbnb entire homes/apartments.

ThinkPol reached out to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, the Real Estate Council of BC, and the realtors exposed by BrettdrC for comments.

While the Real Estate Council promised to look into the matter and get back to us, no one else responded to our request.

At least one realtor featured in BrettdrC’s tweets seems to have removed his account.