By Danny Kucharsky

A Montreal sales rep is leading a campaign against huge fee increases that have been levied on the province’s agents by the new body that oversees real estate brokerage in Quebec.

Mario Rizzi of Rizzi Homes says licensing fees agents have to pay for the Organisme d’autoréglementation du courtage immobilier du Québec (OACIQ) have more than doubled from $410 to $906, including an indemnity fund. The OACIQ was introduced in May as a result of a new real estate brokerage act in the province. It replaces the former Association des courtiers et agents immobiliers du Québec.

Rizzi says sales reps were not properly consulted and were given little warning about the increase. “They had mentioned that fees would probably go up, but there was no mention of how much,” he says. “We were expecting maybe $100, but not more than double.”

Upset about the hike, Rizzi organized a website, Facebook group and petition to protest the fee hike. The Facebook group now has 600 members, while about 2,000 agents have signed the petition opposing the increase. About 80 agents held an hour-long demonstration on May 26 at OACIQ offices on the South Shore of Montreal, voicing their disapproval of the sudden fee hike.

Because of the opposition, the OCAIQ extended the deadline for collecting the licensing fees from June to September because few agents were willing to pay. Sales reps’ licenses will be revoked if they don’t pay the fees, the OACIQ says.

OACIQ officials did not return calls from REM for comment.

The OACIQ is responsible for enforcing regulations covering brokers’ and agency licenses, brokerage requirements, records and bookkeeping, disciplinary proceedings, indemnity fund and professional liability premium, professional conduct, advertising, contracts and forms.

The new act also does away with the term “real estate agent”, with all agents in the province to be called brokers. Mortgage brokers are also covered by the legislation.

It also makes it easier for buyers to pursue brokers in the courts if they believe they have been misled, and eases the way for disputes to be mediated.

Rizzi, who specializes in the sale of investment properties and offers what he says is among the lowest real estate commissions in Montreal at four per cent, is not impressed. “There’s no real difference between calling us agents and brokers,” he says. “They sold agents on the idea that it was going to be a vast improvement, but in reality there is no improvement. They’re very superficial sort of differences that they seem to call improvements. There are only negative effects.”

Rizzi says while the former ACAIQ favoured consumers but also represented agents, the OACIQ solely represents consumers. “They’re charging us very high fees, although they don’t protect us and they don’t represent us.”

He suspects one of the objectives for the large fee increase is to reduce the number of agents in the province, particularly part-timers. “There would be no other reason to increase the fees that much.”

Rizzi admits the number of agents in the province is probably too high, but says a better idea would be to reduce the number of new agents rather than to hit those who are already working with steep fee increases.

The number of salespeople is already dropping and will continue to decline if there’s a slowdown in the market, Rizzi says. He predicts the number of sales reps will fall to 15,000 in a few years from the current 18,000.

Rizzi believes the OACIQ will stick to its guns with the current September payment deadline and that most brokers will cough up the fees or be forced to leave the profession. “The extension works for some agents because they were caught off guard,” he says.

The next step in his campaign is to get people onto the OACIQ board who are opposed to the current increase. An election is coming and a few spots will be up for grabs, he says. “We think we can get it (the fee increase) reversed for next year. But we have to get members sympathetic to our ideas on the board.”