RECO Froze iPro Realty's Trust Accounts: What Ontario Buyers and Agents Should Do

As of early September 2025, the Real Estate Council of Ontario had shut down iPro Realty and frozen its accounts after finding roughly $8 million missing from the brokerage's trust accounts. If your deposit or commission sits in those accounts, lawyers say to file a claim through your own lawyer immediately and amend your contract so the money moves elsewhere.

I'm Moe Asgarian, a real estate broker in Toronto and ranked 47th worldwide inside RE/MAX, and I have rarely seen Ontario's market this rattled by one story. Here is where the scandal started, what is actually frozen, and what I tell clients who are caught in it.

What RECO found in iPro Realty's trust accounts

In May 2025, the Real Estate Council of Ontario, known as RECO, found a shortfall of about $10.5 million in the trust accounts of iPro Realty, a large brokerage operating in Canada that had more than 2,000 agents. Those accounts held agent commissions and client deposits. By the very definition of a trust account, nobody is allowed to touch that money. The strange part is that RECO waited roughly three months before it went public or told police, and that delay is why so many people now question how the regulator does its job.

The closure, the handover, and the frozen accounts

On August 14, 2025, RECO announced it would close iPro Realty and its 17 offices in Toronto and southern Ontario, with August 19, 2025 set as the official closing date. A new company called iCloud Realty was then announced to take over part of the offices and contracts. RECO reported the matter to police, the brokerage's accounts were frozen right away so no more money could drain out, and an independent firm was appointed to review the whole affair with a final report due by the end of October 2025. One correction came later. By early September 2025, RECO said the missing amount is about $8 million and that the $10.5 million figure reported in May 2025 was apparently not accurate. This is one of the largest brokerage shutdowns in Canadian history.

Why frozen accounts put live deals in trouble

Freezing the accounts protected what was left, and it also trapped ordinary people. Take a buyer whose deposit sat in iPro's trust account. They took an inspection condition, decided during the conditional period that they did not want the house, and went to get the deposit back. They cannot, because the money is frozen. Deals that were about to close are in the same position, with no clear answer about what happens next. Something else became obvious through all of this. RECO holds a lot of power on paper but could do very little here. It cannot charge anyone and it cannot run an investigation. All of that has moved to the police and the courts.

Deposits versus commissions: who is likely to be made whole

What we know about the roughly $8 million, based on RECO's own update as of early September 2025, is that about half is real estate agent commission and about half is client money, meaning buyer deposits. RECO has no interest in damaging this market, and plenty of people expect it to find a way and return all of it. My own read is that not one cent of client money will be lost, because RECO will not allow a client to take that hit and insurance exists for exactly this kind of event. Agents sit in a weaker spot. Similar cases in past years have unfortunately shown that agent commissions can simply never arrive.

What to do now if your money or your deal is with iPro

Register everything, fast. It does not matter why: if you have money or a contract sitting with this brokerage, file it through a lawyer immediately. The reason is that your odds of getting the problem solved through insurance go up, and if you move late your file can run into limitation periods and stall. Lawyers are also telling clients to add an amendment to the agreement. If you paid a deposit and the deal has not closed, prepare an addendum signed by both buyer and seller instructing that the deposit be sent straight to the seller's lawyer's trust account. That one agreement is what gets your money out of this situation instead of stuck inside it.

Weak oversight, and what it means for choosing a brokerage

Prior to its closure in August 2025, iPro had not been audited in eight years. Some of its owners sat on RECO's own board of directors until 2023, which is a conflict of interest, and people are fairly asking how a watchdog can supervise firms whose people sit on its board. The founders had not been formally charged as of early September 2025. They had to surrender their real estate licences and cannot apply to work as brokers again, and that alone caused an argument, because how does a sum this large go missing with nobody accused? After heavy pressure, RECO's chief executive said he would take responsibility for reviewing and fixing the system, the Ontario government stepped in, and many agent associations called for stricter supervision. The practical lesson for a seller or a buyer in Toronto is to pay attention to the brokerage you sign with. Over these years both individuals and companies have abused trust accounts and the money in them, and weak oversight turned that into everyone's problem.

If you want a straight answer about how your deposit is held before you sign anything in Toronto, fill out the form at the bottom of this page or book a free consultation. Stay well and take care.