CASL for Realtors: Emailing and Texting Clients Legally in Canada

Canada's anti-spam legislation applies to commercial messages you send by email or text. Real estate is squarely inside it, and the rules are less scary than the penalties suggest — they mostly amount to sending to people who agreed to hear from you, saying who you are, and letting them stop.

This is a practical summary, not legal advice. Check specifics with your brokerage or a lawyer.

Three things every message needs

1. Consent — express or implied, from the person receiving it.
2. Identification — who you are, your brokerage, and how to reach you, in the message itself.
3. An unsubscribe mechanism that works, is easy to find, and is honoured promptly.

Express vs implied consent

Express consent is someone actively agreeing — ticking a box that was not pre-ticked, or entering their email to receive listing alerts. It does not expire, and you should record when and how you got it.

Implied consent comes from an existing relationship and is time-limited. A past client or someone who made an enquiry generally gives you implied consent for a defined period after that transaction or enquiry. Someone who published their business email without a "no unsolicited email" notice may also count, where your message relates to their role.

Where agents get caught

• Buying or scraping lists. No consent, no exemption. This is the clearest violation and the easiest to prove.
• Open house sign-ins that never mention email. If someone wrote their address to see a house, that is not blanket consent to a newsletter. Say what they are signing up for, at the door.
• Letting implied consent quietly expire and continuing to send anyway.
• Unsubscribes that do not work — or take weeks. Honour them quickly and permanently.
• Forgetting SMS. Texts count. The same rules apply.

Keep the records

If a complaint arrives, the burden is on you to show consent. Keep what was agreed, when, and how — a note in your CRM is worth far more than a memory.

What good practice looks like

Ask plainly, describe what you will send, send that, and make leaving painless. Agents who do this have healthier lists anyway: the people still on them actually want to hear from you.

AgentsWise records how and when each contact was captured, includes unsubscribe handling in email and SMS follow-up, and keeps consent visible in the lead record. See email marketing for realtors or the features.