TRESA stands for the Trust in Real Estate Services Act. It is the Ontario provincial law that governs real estate professionals — registrants, brokerages, and the Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO). TRESA replaced the older REBBA (Real Estate and Business Brokers Act) in two phases: Phase 1 in December 2023 and Phase 2 in December 2023 and 2024.
TRESA Phase 2 introduced major changes that all Ontario real estate exams test heavily. The biggest change is "designated representation" — brokerages can now designate specific salespersons to represent specific clients, replacing the previous "multiple representation" model where the brokerage represented both buyer and seller in the same transaction.
Other Phase 2 changes: stricter disclosure rules around offers in multiple-offer situations, expanded definitions of conflict of interest, new continuing education requirements, and tougher penalties for registrants who violate the Code of Ethics.
TRESA also tightened RECO's enforcement powers. RECO now has stronger investigative tools, can issue larger fines, and can suspend or revoke registrations more directly than under REBBA.
The Course 1 exam tests TRESA heavily — roughly 25-30% of Course 1 questions reference TRESA provisions. Course 2 and 3 exams test the practical application of TRESA in residential transactions. The Broker Qualifying Exam tests the broker-specific TRESA Phase 2 obligations including supervision and trust account rules.