If you are a licensed realtor in Ontario, your website is subject to compliance rules from two regulators: RECO (Real Estate Council of Ontario) and the REBBA 2002 framework (the Real Estate and Business Brokers Act). The rules are not particularly onerous, but they are specific, and most agents have one or two violations on their site without realizing it.
This is the practical checklist.
1. Brokerage attribution must be visible on every page
The legal name of your brokerage must appear on every page of your website, in a manner that is "clearly distinguishable". The standard practice is to display it in the footer alongside your name. Most realtor websites include the brokerage name in the footer; the gotcha is that it must be the exact registered legal name (often "X Real Estate Inc., Brokerage" not just "X Real Estate").
If you advertise that you are a "REALTOR®" (the registered trademark), the brokerage name must appear in close proximity. This usually means in the same footer block as your name and credentials.
2. Trade name vs personal name
If you operate under a registered trade name (say, "The Hassan Group" instead of "Hassan Nouman"), the trade name must be registered with RECO and the brokerage. Your personal name as the registered agent must still appear on the site, alongside the trade name.
This is the most common violation we see. Agents set up a trade name brand, plaster it across the site, and forget to include their personal name as required. Six month inspection cycle catches it eventually.
3. License status disclosure
You must identify yourself as a "REALTOR®" or "salesperson" or "broker" (whichever applies to your registration). Implying you have a higher credential than you hold is a violation. A salesperson cannot call themselves a broker. A part time salesperson cannot use the title in a way that implies they are full time.
Most realtor websites get this right by default, but watch for legacy bio copy that uses outdated terms like "agent" without qualification.
4. Sold versus active listings
You can display active listings broadly (IDX/VOW rules permitting). Sold listings can be displayed if you were the listing agent and you have permission from the client to share the transaction (most listing agreements include this consent by default).
You generally cannot display another agent's sold listings without their consent and the seller's consent. This is why most realtor websites only show their own historical sales, not the market in general.
5. Comparative market reference must be specific
If you write a blog post that says "the Mississauga market is up 8% year over year", you need to have actual data to back that claim, and ideally cite the source (your board's monthly statistics, for example). Making up market figures or rounding aggressively is a soft violation that can be flagged in audits.
This applies to your home evaluation deliverables too. If you tell a seller their home is worth $1.2M, you need a comparable set on file that supports the range.
6. Lead form consent language
Your contact form must include consent language for PIPEDA (Canada's general privacy law) and CASL (the anti spam law, if you intend to email follow ups). The standard language is something like: "By submitting this form, you consent to receive communications from [Brokerage]. You can unsubscribe at any time."
A bare contact form with no consent language is non compliant. So is consent language that does not let the lead easily unsubscribe.
7. Cookie banner for non essential cookies
If your site uses Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, or any tracking cookies that are not strictly necessary for the site to function, Canadian privacy law requires you to ask for consent before setting them. A cookie banner with "Accept" and "Reject" options, and a link to a Cookies Policy explaining what each one does, satisfies this.
Charcom ships this banner enabled by default. WordPress sites usually need a plugin (CookieYes, Cookiebot) to handle it correctly.
8. Accessibility
Ontario's AODA (Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act) technically applies to websites of businesses with 50 or more employees, which exempts most solo realtors. But proper accessibility is also an SEO factor and a basic ethical baseline. The minimum is alt text on images, semantic HTML, sufficient colour contrast, and keyboard navigability.
What this checklist does not cover
Provincial laws outside Ontario have analogous frameworks (BC's BCFSA, Alberta's RECA, etc.) with similar but not identical rules. If you operate in multiple provinces, you need to check each one.
The good news is that meeting Ontario's rules generally puts you in a strong position to meet other provinces' rules with minor tweaks. The bad news is that you cannot assume that.
If you are in doubt about whether your site meets compliance requirements, ask your brokerage's compliance officer. Every brokerage has one (sometimes the broker of record themselves), and they will tell you in 10 minutes whether your site has issues.
Charcom sites are designed to meet RECO and REBBA requirements out of the box: brokerage attribution in footer, license credential display, consent on lead forms, cookie banner, accessibility baseline. The fields you fill out during onboarding map directly to the compliance requirements.