The Utah-based real estate association no longer maintains NAR’s Clear Cooperation

The real estate sector does currently distributed about the National Association of Real Estate Agents Clear cooperation policy, but one local real estate association and MLS have decided to go further than just expressing an opinion.

In an email sent Oct. 3 to members based in Utah Council of real estate agents of Parkstad (PCBR) announced that it would no longer enforce the clear cooperation rule, as first reported by Inman News.

The Utah MLS had 1,789 subscribers at the end of 2023.

In her email, CEO Jamie Johnson told members that the MLS and PCBR boards wrote a letter to NAR in August informing the national trade group of their decision.

NAR’s Clear Cooperation Policy was drawn up in 2020. Under this policy, agents must submit listings to their local MLS within one business day of publicly marketing a home.

“We informed NAR that we would not adhere to the policy requirements until their policy committee met and made a decision on potential changes to the policy,” Johnson’s email to members said. “However, due to NAR’s Core Standard requirements, we told them that we would wait until their policy committee had discussions before making any formal announcements to our membership as a whole. We are not currently enforcing the policy, but to be fair, we have not had any charges in the past for agents who violate this policy.

According to Johnson’s email, historically, if a member contacted PCBR about a possible violation, the association would ask the agent to get the listing on the MLS — a request Johnson said was always granted.

“Our normal MLS policy still requires an agent with a listing agreement to post the listing in the MLS unless he or she has a signed right of hold on the seller’s form,” she wrote.

In addition to pushback from industry leaders, NAR’s Clear Cooperation Policy is also under scrutiny from US authorities Ministry of Justice and is at the center of NAR’s current legal battle with the DOJ.

NAR did not return HousingWire’s request for comment and PCBR declined to comment.