Frequently asked questions
Inspection questionnaire

All brokers acting on their own account and all agencies holding a valid or suspended licence as at December 31.

From the hyperlink included in the email sent by the Inspection Department in early February or directly in the My record section in the Broker's area (previously called Synbad).

From the date you became a broker acting on your own account until December 31.

Yes, whether or not your licence is suspended, you must complete and submit the Inspection questionnaire.

Yes, you must submit a Trust Transaction Report along with the 12 trust account bank statements and the Register of trust transaction.

You must send the OACIQ a letter from your financial institution, confirming inactivity for the full year or for the missing months.

Yes, you must submit a Trust Transaction Report even if there was no activity in the account during the year, or if the account balance was $0 for the entire year.  You must provide confirmation of inactivity from your financial institution for the entire year or for the months of inactivity, if applicable.

According to regulations, the trustee who holds a sum considered as unclaimed property within the meaning of the Unclaimed Property Act must dispose of the sum in accordance with that Act and so notify the OACIQ without delay. For more information on unclaimed property, read the article Keeping of trust accounts, section 5.3 Sums considered as unclaimed property or visit the Revenu Québec website, Direction principale des biens non réclamés.

No, only the notices of disclosure “purchase, sale, exchange” (or the old notices of disclosure when a licensee is acting as a mortgage lender) must be recorded in the register of disclosure notices. Payments received under a remuneration agreement must be recorded in the register of transactions and the supporting documents must be recorded in a transaction record.

No, only the register of disclosure notices must be submitted to the OACIQ by March 31, 2023, if applicable.

If, as at December 31, you had a trust account, even if there was no activity in the account or if the balance was $0 for the whole year:

• The trust transaction report covering the period from January 1 to December 31 (4 pages)
• 12 bank statements or confirmation of balance or inactivity from your financial institution
•  The register of trust transactions for the previous year

You must also submit the Register of disclosure notices if you have sent notices of disclosure to prospective contracting parties in the past year.

You may check the tool Instructions – Trust Transaction Report (PDF). Make sure the report is complete and balanced.
It is strongly recommended that you enlist the services of a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) to audit your annual trust transaction report.

All pages of the report must be signed by an authorized signatory of the licence holder as declared to the Organization via the form Declaration related to the opening or updating of a general trust account (PDF). The pages must also bear the name of the licence holder and the date of signature.

Make sure your document does not exceed 21 MB. If you need help, see this tutorial (in French only).

The directors or executive officers of the agency will have to complete the questionnaire and submit it by the March 31 deadline. If no one is able to complete the questionnaire, please contact the Inspection Department by email at inspection@oaciq.com before the deadline.

You may be subject to monetary administrative penalties (MAPs) for failing to provide the information required by the Real Estate Brokerage Act (REBA) and its regulations within the timeframe required by the OACIQ. The REBA provides for a monetary administrative penalty of $250 per day in the case of a broker licence holder and $1,000 per day in the other cases (e.g. the case of an agency licence holder). The law provides that a failure to comply for which a monetary administrative penalty may be imposed shall constitute a new failure for every day it continues. The Act also provides that failure to pay a MAP may lead to the suspension of your licence, either as an independent broker, an agency representative, or even the agency’s own licence. In addition, your file may be subject to measures, up to and including the filing of a disciplinary complaint.

For more information, see this section of the Guideline – Complaint management and collaboration with the OACIQ or the article: Amendments to the Real Estate Brokerage Act – Bill 30.

You will not be able to finalize and submit the questionnaire if the documents are not attached to it. You will only be able to partially complete the questionnaire, where your answers will be saved automatically. You may return at a later date to add the required documents as attachments and proceed with the completion of your Inspection questionnaire. You must ensure that you meet the deadline.

All agencies and all brokers acting on their own account who had notices of disclosure during the year. An agency or broker whose licence is suspended also has this obligation.
A broker whose licence was suspended while he was acting on behalf of an agency has the following obligations:

• Keep his own register of disclosure notices
• Send this register to the OACIQ by March 31 of the following year
• Keep any notice given in a single record

We recommend using Firefox as some browsers that offer automatic translation (e.g. Google Chrome) may alter the entire questionnaire by changing certain wordings of questions or answer choices

However, if you still want to complete the questionnaire with Google Chrome, please adjust the translation settings. Click this link for the procedure.

You may use tools such as an Excel file to filter the number of brokerage contracts to purchase in your register.

The register of brokerage contracts can be extracted from your electronic system as an Excel file or any other type of file (e.g. PDF).

If your system does not allow you to extract data directly into an Excel file, you may convert the resulting file into an Excel file (e.g.: file extracted from the system in PDF format converted into an Excel file).