July 16, 2018  
'Phantom bids' targeted in new Ontario real estate rules

TORONTO -- Starting next month, home buyers in Ontario will have new protections against phantom bids, a practice used by unscrupulous real estate agents to drive up the prices of homes.

Agents may hint they have received competing offers when they haven't in order to spook potential buyers into raising their offers or rushing into a deal.




Buyers who suspect they may have been duped will be able to find out whether there truly were other offers by filing a complaint with the Real Estate Council of Ontario, the agency tasked with enforcing the new rules.

Joseph Richer, registrar of the real estate council, says the agency has received very few complaints about phantom bids over the years, indicating the issue is not as prevalent as some suggest.

"We don't believe that it's a rampant practice," said Richer. "But if it happens it's very serious, and we would take it very seriously."



"It depends on the market and how hot the market might be," he said. "If there's lots of bidding wars going on, that might make it might easier."


"It's very easy for someone to play on that."


"What tends to happen is that one province will put something in place ... and it'll spread to other provinces," said Soper. "The regulators in the provinces tend to keep in pretty tight step with each other in terms of how legislation is developing."

However, officials in British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec say they haven't received many complaints about phantom bids and therefore don't believe such rules are needed.

"It never has been a significant problem for us," said Charles Stevenson, director of professional standards for the Real Estate Council of Alberta.



"Our legislative tools are there to deal with it in the event that it does rear its ugly head," he said.


The Canadian Press

