How to Check a Real Estate Agent in Ontario — Five Years of Discipline Are Public
You will read forty reviews before choosing an agent. The regulator publishes something reviews cannot.
In short
Every real estate agent and brokerage registered to trade in Ontario appears on the Real Estate Council of Ontario public register. It is free, open to anyone, and takes about a minute.
And it shows far more than registration status. The register publishes five years of enforcement history — discipline hearings and decisions, charges and convictions, proposals to refuse, revoke or suspend a registration, and appeal tribunal decisions.
That is a regulator publishing a record whether the agent likes it or not. It answers a different question from any review, and it is the single most useful minute you will spend before signing a representation agreement.
What does the RECO register actually show?
More disclosure than most Ontario registers offer, and it is worth knowing the categories before you look.
| What is published | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Registration status | Whether the person may legally trade in real estate at all |
| Discipline referrals and decisions | Allegations of Code of Ethics breaches that went to a hearing, and the outcome |
| Charges and convictions | Proceedings under the legislation governing the industry |
| Registrar’s proposals | Moves to refuse, revoke, suspend or place conditions on a registration |
| Licence Appeal Tribunal decisions | Where a registrant appealed and what happened |
| How far back | A minimum of sixty months — five years |
Five years is a long memory. A decision from four years ago that the agent would rather you did not read is still sitting there, published deliberately for public awareness.
How do I search it?
Why is this different from reviews?
Because of who controls the publication.
Reviews are gathered, displayed and often solicited by the business. A happy client is asked to post; an unhappy one usually is not. That is not fraud, it is marketing, and it means a page of five-star reviews tells you about the agent’s best clients rather than about the agent.
Enforcement history is published by the regulator against the registrant’s interest. It is incomplete in the opposite direction — it shows only what was formally pursued, and most agents have nothing on it at all. Which is the point: a clean register is meaningful precisely because a dirty one would have been published.
What if something goes wrong?
RECO investigates complaints about registered agents and brokerages, and about anyone who may be trading in real estate unlawfully without registration at all.
Conduct can be referred to RECO’s Discipline Committee for a hearing on alleged breaches of the Code of Ethics. Outcomes are published on the register, which is how the five years of history you just read got there in the first place.
Keep the paperwork: the representation agreement, the offers, the emails. A complaint with documents attached is a different proposition from one without.
Red flags when choosing an agent
What to do next
Before you sign a representation agreement, search both the agent and the brokerage on the RECO public register. One minute, twice, once per transaction of the largest size most people ever make.
Compare professional services in Ontario on Ontario24 and contact firms directly. Ontario24 is a classified directory — we help you find and compare, and we do not vet anyone, which is exactly why a regulator’s register beats anything we or anyone else could tell you; our safety tips cover the habit.
Buying a house involves four people whose credentials work completely differently: your agent is on this register, your lawyer is on the Law Society directory, the trades you hire afterwards are on the Skilled Trades Ontario register — and your home inspector is on nothing at all.
Before you call anyone, it helps to know what this job should cost and what the next one will. What things cost in Ontario in 2026 puts 75 service prices in one table.
Frequently asked questions
Search the public register on the Real Estate Council of Ontario’s website. Every agent and brokerage registered to trade in real estate in Ontario appears on it, and the search is free and open to anyone. It takes about a minute.
Yes, and this is what makes it unusual. The register shows enforcement activity from the past five years — discipline hearings and decisions, charges and convictions under the legislation, registrar’s proposals to refuse, revoke or suspend a registration, and Licence Appeal Tribunal decisions.
A minimum of sixty months — five years. RECO publishes its enforcement activities and decisions specifically for public awareness, which means a discipline decision from four years ago is still there for you to read before you sign anything.
Trading in real estate in Ontario without registration is unlawful, and RECO investigates anyone who may be doing it. Check the spelling and the legal name first, since the name on a business card is not always the registered one, then contact RECO if it still does not appear.
Submit a complaint to RECO, which investigates complaints about registered agents and brokerages. Conduct can be referred to RECO’s Discipline Committee for a hearing on alleged breaches of the Code of Ethics, and outcomes are published on the register.
No, and this is the point of the register. Reviews are chosen and displayed by the business. Enforcement history is published by the regulator whether the agent likes it or not, and the two sources answer completely different questions.
Yes. Brokerages appear on the same register and are subject to the same enforcement publication. It costs no extra time to search both, and a pattern at the brokerage level is worth knowing about before you sign a representation agreement.
Sources
The public register, the categories of enforcement activity published on it, the sixty-month publication period and the complaints and discipline process are all published by the Real Estate Council of Ontario, the regulator for real estate registration in the province. Checked 17 September 2026. Ontario24 is a classified directory: we do not register, vet or recommend any real estate agent or brokerage, and nothing here is legal advice.