Ontario’s real estate regulator is taking disciplinary action against its former chair over trust account violations, nearly a year after the iPro Realty scandal.
Last Wednesday, the Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO) posted notices on its website referring both Katie Steinfeld, broker of record for On the Block Realty Inc., and her brokerage to the discipline committee.
“The Registrar has referred Katie Steinfeld to the Discipline Committee for a hearing,” the notice said, adding that Steinfeld failed to follow the rules and regulations under the Trust and Real Estate Services Act — consumer protection legislation in the real estate industry — for trust account violations.
“This action is based on failing to review and sign trust account reconciliations within required timelines and failing to ensure that the brokerage complied with trust account, reconciliation, and reporting requirements under the Act and regulations,” the notice said.
On the same day, another notice was also posted for On the Block Realty, adding that the brokerage failed to keep trust funds separate from brokerage funds, “improperly disbursed” trust funds, failed to report trust account shortfalls, as well as not complying with trust account and “record-keeping requirements.”
The size of the trust account shortfall is not currently known.
Steinfeld’s husband, Daniel Steinfeld, is the current president of the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board and is listed as a broker at On the Block Realty, according to RECO’s website.
The couple founded the brokerage together, with a new offering of auctioning real estate to have transparent housing bids — a common practice in Australia and Britain.
Katie and Daniel Steinfeld, and RECO did not respond to the Star by time of publication.
Katie Steinfeld was the former chair of the board of directors at RECO, and was a member of the discipline and appeals committee.
Steinfeld, along with the entire board at RECO, was fired by the provincial government in December 2025, in the wake of the iPro scandal.
At the end of 2025, Ford’s government took over RECO after widespread outrage over a deal RECO cut in August with iPro founders Fedele Colucci and Rui Alves, a former RECO board member. The deal allowed the men to avoid charges and fines after their lawyer disclosed a $10-million shortfall from their brokerage’s trust accounts in May just before a scheduled audit.
The Ontario government appointed Jean Lépine as its administrator, whose task is to reform the regulator.
