The Real Estate Services Act requires that a deposit cheque of $5,000 or more received by a REALTOR® must be submitted to the brokerage office and deposited to brokerage trust account.

This means when you give ABC Realty a deposit cheque on a home, it is held in a brokerage trust account until the sale completes, for a minimum of 30 days, and will be applied towards the purchase price of the property. Brokerages hold trust monies as impartial stakeholders on behalf of the parties, and trust monies cannot be paid out of the account without the agreement of both parties. If your original offer includes a clause that interest accrued on trust monies was part of your agreement, you will be entitled to the interest once the property sale completes. Otherwise, under the Real Estate Services Act, the interest accrued is sent to the Real Estate Foundation, a non-profit organization which funds charitable works.