Realtor Andrea Beitel, formerly with iPro Realty, received an NDA as part of her insurance settlement offer for commission money she lost in the iPro scandal. Like many agents, she refused to sign.Galit Rodan/The Globe and Mail
As the Real Estate Council of Ontario embarks on consultations about rebuilding public trust after the collapse of iPro Realty Ltd., questions remain about whether the organization is focused on protecting consumers or the industry.
RECO’s insurance program has recently come into focus because of its central role in repaying realtors and consumers who faced financial hardship after iPro reported to the council in May, 2025, that $10.5-million had been misappropriated from its trust accounts. iPro’s bank accounts were subsequently frozen in late August, 2025, which threw hundreds of home transactions into chaos.
Insurer Alternative Risk Services reported the bailout could ultimately cost the program $30-million. But RECO has already been paying out about $20-million in “errors and omissions” insurance every year. Unlike the iPro situation, which became public, the details of thousands of claims made and resolved yearly are typically shielded by non-disclosure agreements.
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According to RECO’s 2024 annual report, errors and omissions claims cost the insurance program $19-million in 2024, $23-million in 2023 and $19-million in 2019. Since its inception in 2000, there’s been more than $281-million paid out in such claims.
“Most matters in litigation (all civil litigation, not just our claims) that settle include releases that contain usual terms like no admission of liability and confidentiality provisions,” said Ryan Durrell, insurance broker with Axxima Insurance Services, the parent company of Alternative Risk Services, in an e-mail.
“It’s a huge cost, and I think if consumers found that out, they should be infuriated,” said Andrea Beitel, a former iPro realtor who received an NDA as part of her insurance settlement offer for commission money she lost in the iPro scandal. Like many agents, she refused to sign.
Now that Ms. Beitel is aware that RECO’s insurer makes such NDAs a routine part of settlement cases, she’s concerned about what kinds of errors and mistakes might have been shielded from public view or accountability.
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According to RECO’s 2024 annual report, incomplete sales and mistakes in property descriptions were the leading causes of losses on residential sales. “In a perfect world, I think the public should be notified about those things,” Ms. Beitel said. “How does [an NDA] possibly serve the consumer?”
Julie Macfarlane, a law professor at the University of Windsor who runs the Can’t Buy My Silence advocacy campaign, says these confidentiality clauses are becoming toxic in the public mind even as their use has become ubiquitous. NDAs are found in everything from high-profile settlements involving serious matters such as sexual assault to routine retail-level consumer disputes and purchase returns. Her organization hears about new examples every week from fed-up consumers.
“People often believe these things are being done in a sinister way, but in many cases, they’ve got that NDA in there because they have it in everything. A lot of people have been told just to sign it, which perpetuates the status quo,” said Ms. Macfarlane, whose organization recently released a guide for consumers to resist NDAs.
“When industries are sort of self-policed, you find these things happening quite a bit,” said Tom Rakocevic, NDP MPP for Humber River-Black Creek and critic on the consumer affairs ministry that has been managing the RECO issue.
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He said the issue of vital information being withheld from consumers comes up again and again in the delegated authorities, such as RECO, and those covering the building trades. “Certainly everybody would like to know who they are dealing with,” he said.
With the volume of insurance settlements coming out of RECO, some industry veterans such as lawyer Alan Silverstein, who was on RECO’s board when it formed the program, wonder if more disclosure could help avoid future mistakes.
“What are the activities that are causing it, and who are the people causing it? We have statistics of where losses are occurring. You should design continuing education around that,” said Mr. Silverstein.
Ultimately, he said, it may require new legislation or new direction from the provincial government to force RECO and other organizations like it to stop using NDAs, and provide the public with information about which professionals are making costly errors.
“Sometimes things only change after there’s a major incident; doing things that should have been done a long time ago. This may be the time to consider tightening the rules and government has that power,” he said.