Electronic document management (EDM) of agencies and brokers acting on their own account

If your records and documents are kept in your computer or on a server, or if you have specific software in your establishment to manage your transaction records and administrative records, you have what is called an electronic document management (EDM) system.

Once it is well established and well managed, EDM offers several advantages, including the advantage of saving on storage space by not having to keep paper documents. In addition, EDM provides quick, remote and simultaneous access to documents, which greatly facilitates the consultation, management and tracking of records. However, EDM can quickly become problematic if some basic principles are not respected.

Electronic document management

Document organization

In order to meet the EDM’s efficiency goals, guidelines must be established regarding the classification and naming of documents entered into the system, whether through digitization or recording.

The classification and naming methods must make the record content validation easier and help locate a document to be consulted easily and quickly.

Document security

Electronic records and registers must be kept for at least 6 years following their final closing, in accordance with the requirements of the Regulation respecting records, books and registers, trust accounting and inspection of brokers and agencies.

It is necessary to ensure that throughout the life cycle of these documents, their security and the protection of the personal information they contain are guaranteed, pursuant to the Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector, whether through:

the choice of the medium, which must be stable and secure, and ensure the confidentiality, integrity and sustainability of Information;
the implementation of a backup and redundancy strategy, which helps avoid any loss of data due to a system deficiency, an equipment failure or an accidental or undesired alteration of the data;
the EDM’s access management, which must be done in such a way that only authorized persons can have access to the content they need;
the implementation of a destruction policy providing for a secure method of destruction and that documents can be kept beyond the deadline if the person concerned consents, as set out in the Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector.

Change management

The implementation of an electronic document management system brings major changes in the way records and registers are kept and in the tasks of agency employees.

Agency executive officers must provide the necessary resources and tools to their teams to ensure proper management of these changes and compliant use of the system. He must also put in place control mechanisms to ensure that the rules governing EDM are respected and that the agency’s records are of the expected level of quality;

To learn about the technical specifications that an EDM system (software or an in-house system) must at least meet, check the following document:

Implementing an electronic document management system: Technical specifications for agencies and brokers acting on their account

Digitization

The use of an EDM system may involve document digitization. In order for your electronic documents to be considered as equivalent to the original paper documents and retain their legal value, in accordance with the Act to establish a legal framework for information technology, some principles must be respected:

Digitization documentation

The digitization process must be documented. This documentation must enable the agency or the broker acting on his own account to show, in particular, that the digitized document contains the same information as the original paper document and that it can be kept and used throughout its entire life cycle, that is, from its creation to its destruction.

This documentation must be kept throughout the life cycle of the document resulting from the digitization.

Quality control

Regardless of who digitized documents, quality control is an essential step in this process. It ensures that the digitized document is identical to the paper document.

Secure destruction of source documents

Source documents can be destroyed after digitization. However, before destroying them, it is necessary to ensure that a quality control has been carried out and that the files have been saved.

The destruction of source documents must be done in such a way as to preserve the confidentiality of information they contain.

For more details on documentation and supervision of the digitization process, check the guide Digitization: Go for quality and document your process!

IMPORTANT: The agency executive officer and the broker acting on his own account are responsible for implementing the procedures and guidelines to oversee electronic document management. These procedures and guidelines must enable them to meet the requirements of the Real Estate Brokerage Act and its regulations, as well as any other legal requirements to which they are subject in their practice, including the Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector.

For any questions, feel free to contact the Inspection Department.

If you are planning to go digital or if you are currently using an electronic document management system, we invite you to consult the following publications to ensure that best practices are put in place:

Reference number: 206968
Last update: August 20, 2019

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Electronic document management (EDM) of agencies and brokers acting on their own account

Electronic document management

Digitization