British Columbia — digitally altered images.
What the rule requires, how BCFSA enforces it, and how SEAREI ships the four artifacts in one delivery.
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Download the AB 723 compliance checklist (PDF, 2 pages, no signup) — California reference template →
A British Columbia / BCFSA-specific checklist is in preparation.
BCFSA Real Estate Services Rules + REBGV bulletin guidance.
British Columbia regulates licensee conduct through the BC Financial Services Authority (BCFSA) under the Real Estate Services Act and the BCFSA Real Estate Services Rules. Operating guidance for staged or digitally altered listing images comes from board bulletins, most cited the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV). As of May 2026, the operative BCFSA rule language reads:
A licensee must not provide false or misleading information about real estate services or about real estate that is the subject of those services. Where photographs of real estate have been digitally altered to add, remove, or modify objects or features of the property, the licensee must clearly disclose that the photographs have been digitally altered.
Personal information attached to digitally altered images (location data, original capture metadata) is also subject to the British Columbia Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA BC).
What a BCFSA disciplinary review looks like.
BCFSA has disciplinary authority over real estate licensees and can issue orders ranging from administrative penalties to licence suspension or cancellation. In practice a BC review begins with a complaint to BCFSA or a board (REBGV, FVREB, VIREB), followed by a request for the unaltered original, the disclosure as it appeared on the published image, and the staging date. PIPA BC creates a parallel exposure for personal information mishandling. Response windows typically run 10 business days; failure to produce documentation can itself trigger an administrative penalty.
The wording SEAREI applies.
This image has been digitally altered to show virtual staging.
Four concrete artifacts per job.
- Disclosure-labeled export using BC’s “digitally altered” phrasing on or adjacent to every staged image.
- Unaltered original hosted at a permanent public URL that satisfies the BCFSA disclosure expectation without exposing PIPA-relevant metadata.
- Immutable compliance certificate — HTML plus SHA-256 manifest — covering both the staging transformation and the personal-information handling chain.
- Forensic audit trail. Every state transition on the listing — upload, overlay applied, certificate generated, re-rendered after revisions — is recorded with a server timestamp and surfaced through the verification URL, so a BCFSA officer or board compliance officer can reconstruct the full provenance of every image months after the listing closes.
BCFSA Real Estate Services Rules · BC Office of the Information & Privacy Commissioner — PIPA BC · Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV).
SEAREI provides compliance workflow tools. This page is not legal advice. Confirm final disclosure requirements with your board, brokerage, and BC counsel.
Last updated: May 6, 2026 · SEATECHONE LLC
Other jurisdictions: California AB 723 · Washington · NWMLS Rule 80.