Termination of BDAR

September 10, 2025

Earlier this week the Barrie & District Association of REALTORS® (BDAR) notified their members that their relationship with ITSO would be terminating at the end of December 2025. BDAR has been a Member and valued contributor of ITSO and its predecessor ORTIS, and we would like to express our gratitude and appreciation to all of their members and volunteers for their support and contributions over the years.

The message to their members was, not surprisingly, written at the end of a relationship that experienced more downs than ups as of late. ITSO wishes to provide additional context and perspective in response to BDAR’s message. There are always two sides to any story and ITSO and BDAR seem to have different perspectives to this one.

The issues with BDAR started in 2023 when BDAR ‘integrated’ with Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB). The BDAR members approved a new class of shares in BDAR’s corporation that are owned by TRREB and exceed the voting shares held by BDAR’s own REALTOR® members. TRREB gained de facto control over BDAR through these shares and through the BDAR Board of Directors composed mostly of TRREB members.

TRREB is the main competitor of ITSO so this ‘integration’ was cause for concern, especially when the Quinte & District Association of REALTORS® announced a similar integration with the Durham Regional Association of REALTORS®, who was a TRREB Partner Board at the time.

Seeing this, as well as recognizing the likelihood of additional amalgamations involving ITSO Member Associations, the Members of ITSO passed a Bylaw amendment in April 2023 requiring ITSO Members to maintain the same corporate structure and control as when they were accepted as Members unless approved by the ITSO Board of Directors. The Members of ITSO agreed that as a membership association it is only common sense that Members need to retain the same fundamental corporate structure as when they first joined. Otherwise, it would be like someone holding membership in a pickle-ball association but showing up one day holding a hockey stick.

More importantly, the Bylaw amendment did not automatically terminate any Member Association’s membership in ITSO – it simply created an avenue to have corporate changes reviewed by the ITSO Board, who could then decide whether or not to allow those association to continue their Membership in ITSO.

BDAR’s response to this proposed Bylaw amendment was to sue ITSO and all of its directors and officers individually.

This lawsuit was the final straw in the relationship between ITSO and BDAR. ITSO’s founding principles are to have open and transparent dialogue with its Member Associations and to foster cooperation. BDAR made it impossible for ITSO to adhere to these principles when they ‘integrated’ with ITSO’s main competitor and then subsequently sued ITSO for making reasonable and warranted amendments to the ITSO Bylaw.

The court agreed with ITSO that the Bylaw amendment had been lawfully passed. ITSO received the court’s decision in June where the judge dismissed BDAR’s application and ordered BDAR to pay ITSO $120,000 in costs.

After successfully defending the lawsuit, and no longer constrained by the litigation, ITSO’s Board of Directors were able to finally hold BDAR to the same standards as all other Member Associations which requires them to enforce the MLS® Rules and Policies.  

This requirement is a Rule of the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) governing the standards related to the operation of MLS® Systems. ITSO Members have always been required to adopt and enforce the MLS® Rules, which they all did. This obligation has formed part of the MLS® Services Agreement (MSA) since 2017 and is found in the ITSO Bylaw, which Member Associations are required to comply with.

REALTORS® are constantly saying that having accurate data is critical to supporting their clients, and one means of ensuring data meets this elevated standard is through the enforcement of the MLS® Rules. Further, REALTORS® should have a consistent experience when using the ITSO MLS® System (i.e., the rules should be enforced equally regardless of what Member Association a REALTOR® is a member of). Moreover, it should be noted that requiring Member Associations to enforce the MLS® Rules is not a particularly onerous obligation considering that all member boards/associations of CREA should have been doing so for years.

ITSO had long held concerns that BDAR was not enforcing the MLS® Rules to the same standard as the other Member Associations. This suspicion was confirmed after launching Listing Data Checker (LDC) in May, which has flagged a disproportionate number of rule violations in listings belonging to BDAR members relative to the size of BDAR.

ITSO gave BDAR notice of default under the MSA in June due to a lack of MLS® Rule enforcement. BDAR was then given 45 days to correct all the violations identified in the notice of default and enforce the MLS® Rules as intended. BDAR was either unwilling or unable to correct all the breaches identified in the notice of default and in some cases actually decreased the accuracy of the listing information by having BDAR staff input incorrect zoning information. ITSO suspects these changes were made without notifying or receiving input from the listing REALTOR®, which is concerning from a liability perspective.

Allowing BDAR to remain a participant in the MSA when they are not enforcing the MLS® Rules would diminish the integrity of the MLS® data in the ITSO System and would disadvantage the remaining Member Associations, who are utilizing their association resources to enforce the rules with their members. As such, the ITSO Board of Directors terminated BDAR’s participation in the MSA on August 7, 2025.

ITSO originally offered to continue services to BDAR members until September 30, 2025 but BDAR asked for an extension until December 31, 2025. ITSO decided to grant the extension as both BDAR and ITSO want to end the relationship with minimal impact to users, and this should also provide any BDAR users time to smoothly transition to one of ITSO’s remaining Member Associations if they are interested in maintaining access to the ITSO MLS® System.

ITSO is disappointed with how our relationship with BDAR is ending. We believe all of these issues could have been easily avoided through open communications and transparency, but unfortunately that option was never provided.  We remain committed to assisting BDAR with their off-boarding to make the transition as smooth and stable as possible. As an association with a track record of serving its members for close to sixty years, we wish BDAR every success for the next sixty. 

ITSO is looking forward to a future of working collaboratively with its remaining Member Associations who value the quality of the ITSO MLS® System and the enforcement efforts that are required to maintain the integrity of the system.