Ontario Realtors are now one step closer to enjoying peace of mind when handling agreements of purchase and sale electronically. On March 21, the bill to remove an exemption of agreements of purchase and sale from the Electronic Commerce Act passed its second reading in the Ontario Legislature with overwhelming support from all three political parties.

OREA has been championing the issue of electronic agreements of purchase and sale for years and says that Bill 28, if passed, will provide electronic transactions with added legal protection and therefore eliminate Realtor reluctance to handle the agreements of purchase and sale using modern-day technology.

The legislation, introduced by MPP Todd Smith (Prince Edward—Hastings), was inspired by two local Realtors who came to Smith’s local Belleville office last spring and told him that the way transactions are handled in Ontario lags behind the available technology, OREA says.