CCIMLS Revamps Citation Policy & Strategy

The CCIMLS Board of Directors recently approved a revamping of the Citation Policy and strategy around citation offenses. Our goal is to make sure the rules of the MLS - which exist to facilitate cooperation and ensure data you can rely on - are clear and enforcement of those rules are both fair and consistent. With that, the Citation Policy exists to maintain the integrity of the MLS by enforcing its rules and policies so part of our strategy was to consider each violation individually and to break the updated policy into sections based on the harm of violation offenses. Those that harm consumers, cooperation, or are a breach of data are considered the most egregious violations.

The New Citation Policy Outline: The new Citation Policy is broken down into easy-to-read and understand sections which include bullet points specifying the various steps taken for the issuance of citations. In addition, the policy includes simple navigation using a table of contents that allows members to quickly jump to a specific section.

A New Process For The Issuance Of Citations: Based on member feedback, we have created a new breakdown for the issuance of citation offenses.

Initial Error Notification: This is a newly added educational component that gives members the opportunity to learn about their offense in an effort to prevent its occurrence in the future. Violations that allow for an initial error notification are those that are found to violate the rules but do not cause harm to the data, agents, or consumers.

Several policies do not include this educational component and many will continue to address a violation with a First Offense (Warning) notification. This will require that a violation be corrected within 24 hours or a Second Offense (Fine) will be issued. Second Offenses will also continue to be sent if a violator has received a First Offense notice for the same violation within a 12-month period.

For each additional offense of the same violation, including those not corrected after each 24-hour period, a $250 increase in fine shall incur with the potential loss of MLS access.

Instant Fine: The most egregious violations are those considered to harm cooperation, data, and consumers. With that, in certain circumstances outlined in the updated Fine Schedule, an Instant Fine shall incur. These policies include but are not necessarily limited to the sharing of passwords and providing unauthorized access to the MLS data.

The Hearing Process: The updated Citation Policy outlines our hearing process, which shall be the result of having accumulated 3 violations resulting in a fine within a 12-month period. However, Article VIII of the MLS Rules & Regulations allows any member who receives a citation offense to request a hearing, which will be held as described in this section of the Citation Policy.

You can check out the revamped Citation Policy, here. Please send any questions or comments to compliance@cciaor.com.