Can Your Agent Buy the House You Are Selling? What Ontario Law Entitles You to First

When your listing agent — or their spouse, or a numbered company they control — wants to buy your property, Ontario law does not ban it. It requires them to put it in writing and get your signed acknowledgment first. Here is what that signature actually means.

I am Arthur Zhao. Picture the offer that finally lands on your listing — and the buyer named on it is a numbered company that turns out to belong to your own agent, or to their spouse. It is a moment that makes a lot of sellers uneasy, and for a fair reason: the person who is supposed to be negotiating for you has just moved to the other side of the table.

Here is what Ontario law actually fixes on: not whether the agent is allowed to buy, but whether the burden landed where it belongs — on the agent, to disclose and to prove you were told, before anything is signed. Seen that way, the rules read less like a prohibition than like a paper trail built for your side. This article walks through what you are legally owed, what the disclosure has to contain, what your signature does and does not commit you to, and why you should have an independent lawyer read it before you sign anything. (This is consumer education, not legal advice — and it is not a suggestion that agents commonly do this; in the vast majority of deals the situation never comes up at all.)

What the law is actually regulating here

The phrase “my agent wants to buy my house” actually covers two different situations, and Ontario law reaches each through a different provision.

Situation one: the agent buys for themselves — directly, or indirectly through a spouse, a relative, or a company they control. This falls under TRESA section 32, which governs a registrant acquiring an interest in real estate for themselves. The operative words are “directly or indirectly,” so an agent who routes the offer through a spouse or their own corporation is still squarely inside the rule.

Situation two: the agent keeps representing you while an interest is held by them, or by someone connected to them. This is governed by section 22.9 of the General regulation under TRESA (O. Reg. 567/05), and it names, expressly, whose interest must be disclosed: the registrant themselves, a person related to the registrant, a personal real estate corporation (PREC) the registrant controls, a person related to that PREC, and — where the agent is a designated representative — the brokerage that employs them. So Ontario law does contain an explicit related-party disclosure rule; the point is not carried by the single word “indirectly” alone.

(One trap to sidestep: the “related person” idea here belongs to real-estate conduct law. Do not borrow the “related person” definition from the federal Income Tax Act — that is a separate scheme entirely.)

One point that surprises people: section 32 is broader than buying your own listing. It equally governs an agent divesting an interest they own — an agent selling their own property, say — and is not limited to the deal they happen to be handling for you.

The line most worth reading twice: the resale disclosure

Section 32(2) makes clear the notice is not a formality — it must contain three things:

(a) a statement of whether the registrant is a brokerage, a broker, or a salesperson;

(b) full disclosure of every fact within the agent’s knowledge that affects or will affect the value of the property; and

(c) where the agent is acquiring, the particulars of any negotiation, offer or agreement for a subsequent sale, lease, exchange or other disposition of the interest.

That third item is the one to read twice. Suppose an agent offers to buy your home at one price — but has already been negotiating to flip it to a third party at a higher one. Section 32(2)(c) requires them to put those particulars in the notice to you. The law will not let an agent quietly buy low from you while a higher resale is already lined up, without telling you about it.

The double requirement: notice AND written acknowledgment

Section 32(1) is strict about the mechanics. Unless the agent first delivers the section 32(2) notice to every other party to the agreement, and each party has acknowledged receipt in writing, the agent may not — directly or indirectly — purchase, lease, exchange or otherwise acquire any interest in the property, or make an offer to do so.

Read that as two separate boxes that both have to be ticked: (1) the notice is delivered, and (2) you acknowledge receipt in writing. An agent mentioning it verbally does not satisfy this. Neither does burying the notice inside a stack of paper for you to sign without registering what it is. The written acknowledgment exists precisely so there is a record that you were genuinely, formally told.

Which situation are you in? Two paths, three rules

What you can do, as a seller or a buyer

In practice:

Get it in writing. A verbal heads-up does not meet the legal test; you are entitled to the written section 32(2) notice.

Check all three items. Is the agent’s status stated? Is every value-affecting fact disclosed — and above all, is any planned resale disclosed? A gap is a red flag.

Separate “received” from “agreed” before you sign. If the paperwork blurs the two, stop and ask what each signature line actually means.

Bring in an independent lawyer or agent. Have someone with no stake in the deal read the notice and tell you whether the price is fair.

Contact RECO if something feels off. The Real Estate Council of Ontario regulates these rules; its Bulletin 3.4 deals specifically with registrants’ personal trades and property interests, and you can raise a concern or a complaint with RECO.

Arthur Zhao

Real Estate Broker · FRI · ABR · SRS · PSA · MCNE · E-PRO · CLHMS & GUILD Elite · REAIS

VP & Branch Manager, Bay Street Group Inc.

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