If you are working out who still has outstanding continuing education before renewal, the RECO continuing education deadline is not one date on a calendar. It is a different date for every registrant, and the last quarter of the year is when the gaps are still cheap to fix.
Key takeaways
There is no single RECO continuing education deadline. It is tied to each registrant's own expiry date, so a brokerage manages a rolling set of them.
RECO sends renewal reminders 60, 30 and 10 days before expiry, so the first one arrives when there is little room left.
RECO states that courses not completed by the required deadline mean the registration lapses, and the person must then apply for reinstatement.
Registrants who have not reached a first renewal have a different obligation: the post registration phase of the Real Estate Salesperson Program, due within two years of registering.
October is the month to audit, because the year's mandatory annual update course has typically been out since January.
When is the RECO continuing education deadline?
It is each registrant's own registration expiry date, and everyone in your office has a different one. RECO sets continuing education against a two year registration cycle: within each cycle a salesperson, broker or sole proprietor completes two mandatory annual update courses and two electives from RECO's catalogue, reached through MyWeb. RECO releases one mandatory annual update course every year, typically in January, and its renewal guidance describes two steps, completing the education and then submitting the application with the fee through MyWeb.
RECO's registration FAQ states that if the courses are not completed by the required deadline, the registration will lapse and the registrant must apply for reinstatement after completing the required education. It also states that where a registrant does not meet the eligibility requirements for an accommodation, RECO cannot grant an extension. So the date that matters to a brokerage is not the expiry date. It is the last date a course can be started, finished and recorded.
This is general information and not legal advice, and a brokerage should confirm current requirements with RECO. A separate article on this site covers the Ontario continuing education requirements in general. This one deals with the weeks left in the year.
Why staggered cycles need a list rather than a memory
Cycles attach to individuals, not brokerages. Someone who registered in March renews in March, and a person who joined you last month may be eleven months from expiry or two. In an office of thirty registrants that is close to thirty deadlines, which is a list or it is nothing. RECO's own naming makes the lag easy to misread: it gives the example of a registrant expiring in 2026 seeing the program listed as the 2024 continuing education program, named for the cycle start.
Why this is an October job and not a December one
The year's update course has been out since roughly January. Anyone who has not taken it has had most of a year.
The 60 day reminder for a December expiry lands now. Audit in November and you are behind RECO rather than ahead.
Electives take real time. They are registrations, sittings and completion records, and the record has to exist before renewal.
There is no informal extension. RECO states it cannot grant one where the registrant does not meet the eligibility requirements for an accommodation.
RECO does state that a registration continues while it processes an application received, with the fee and documentation, before expiry by someone who has met all renewal requirements. That last part is the catch: it does nothing for a course outstanding.
The last quarter continuing education audit
One administrator, one afternoon, one spreadsheet. By the end of the day you know exactly who is fine and who is not.
Step one: pull what you need
Your current roster, with role and date of first registration.
Whatever education and expiry dates your office already holds, however scrappy, old emails and filed certificates included.
A dated screenshot from each registrant of their continuing education program page in MyWeb, showing the four course slots and their status. People skip this step, and it is the only one that gives you the authoritative position.
Optionally a pass through RECO's public professional search, which confirms whether someone is registered to trade in Ontario but is not an education record.
Step two: what to check per registrant
Expiry date, written as a real date so the column sorts, and the weeks remaining beside it.
Which obligation applies: two update courses and two electives, or the post registration phase if they have not reached a first renewal.
Each of the four course slots: done, booked, or not started.
Whether you hold the completion evidence, and where.
Who owns chasing this person.
Step three: sort into three groups. Set the threshold before you look at names.
Clear. All four requirements complete, evidence on file.
Needs a nudge. Something outstanding, but more than about twelve weeks to expiry and a clear run at it.
At risk. Something not started with twelve weeks or less to go, or anyone whose status you could not establish. An unknown belongs here, not in the nudge group.
Step four: what each message says
Clear group. Two lines: their expiry date, confirmation all four requirements are recorded complete, and that you hold the evidence. Most registrants do not know their own expiry date, so this does real work.
Nudge group. The course outstanding, the expiry date, the weeks left, and a request for one thing: a booked course date, by a stated day. Not an intention. A date.
At risk group. From the broker of record. What is outstanding, that renewal cannot proceed until it is done, a written plan with dates by a stated day, and a call in the calendar.
Step five: the registrant who ignores two reminders
Stop sending reminders. Two unanswered messages is information, and the next step changes hands rather than repeating. RECO is clear about what sits with the broker of record: under the Act they shall ensure the brokerage complies with the Act and the regulations, and under O. Reg. 567/05 they must actively participate in managing the brokerage, ensure an adequate level of supervision for the brokers and salespersons it employs, and take reasonable steps about any failure by those people to comply.
So the third contact is a conversation the broker of record has, and it is minuted: date, who was present, what is outstanding, what was committed to, when you check again. Put it to the registrant that way too, because it is accurate and it is not a threat. Their registration is their own, the brokerage is accountable for supervision.
Step six: make next year a twenty minute job
Keep the spreadsheet. The expensive part was establishing expiry dates, and they do not change.
Add the new mandatory annual update course to every row each January, and make the first quarter the target rather than the cycle end.
Review the rows in the monthly slot where you already run your leadership checks. RECO publishes a monthly compliance checklist for brokerage leadership, so the slot exists.
Give every new registrant a row on day one, with the expiry date taken from their own MyWeb record, not their start date with you.
Collect each completion certificate the week it is issued, and name one owner for the list.
First cycle registrants are the easiest group to miss
A registrant who has not reached a first renewal is not doing update courses and electives at all, which is why they fall out of a spreadsheet built around the renewal cycle. RECO states that if this is your first renewal you must complete post registration education through an approved provider.
RECO describes that phase of the Real Estate Salesperson Program as a mandatory compliance course on the legal responsibilities of agents under the Trust in Real Estate Services Act, taken first, then any two of five elective specialization courses. It must be finished within two years of registering with RECO, and RECO states completing it is required to be eligible to renew at the end of the initial cycle. The providers listed are Algonquin College, Career College Group, Fleming College and Humber Polytechnic.
Their clock started at registration with RECO, not the day they joined you, so someone four months into your office may be nineteen months into their two years. And because these courses sit with colleges rather than RECO's catalogue, the booking lead time is somebody else's. Check this group first.
If a registration does lapse
RECO's reinstatement guidance is why the at risk list is worth building now. A registrant has 24 months from the date of termination to apply to reinstate, and must first successfully complete any outstanding education requirements. Terminated more than sixty days, they must also obtain a criminal record and judicial matters check from their local police service. The application and fees go through MyWeb, and RECO notes they may also be required to purchase insurance. Past 24 months, RECO states they will have to complete the pre registration requirements again.
Underneath that is one operational fact: RECO states a person is not permitted to trade in real estate until their registration has been reinstated. Confirm the current process with RECO before relying on it.
Frequently asked questions
What is the RECO continuing education deadline?
There is no common date. It is tied to each registrant's own expiry date on a two year cycle. RECO sends reminders 60, 30 and 10 days before expiry, and states that courses not completed by the required deadline mean the registration will lapse.
What are the RECO renewal requirements for a salesperson or broker?
Two steps: complete the education, then submit the renewal application and pay the fee through MyWeb. For a renewal cycle the education is two annual update courses and two electives. For a first renewal it is the post registration education.
Can a registrant get an extension if they run out of time?
RECO states that where a registrant does not meet the eligibility requirements for an accommodation, it cannot grant an extension to complete the courses. If someone's circumstances might qualify, put that to RECO early.
How does a broker of record find out what registrants have outstanding?
The authoritative record is each registrant's own MyWeb account, under Continuing Education and the training tab, so ask each of them for a dated screenshot. Confirm with RECO what a brokerage can see directly.
A note on Stratify
None of the RECO courses live in Stratify, and they should not. Brokerages use it for the other half of the same afternoon: internal sessions, acknowledgements and dates, kept as a record a broker of record can open rather than a thread to remember.
Sources
RECO continuing education
RECO renewing your registration
RECO registration FAQ
RECO Real Estate Salesperson Program post registration education
RECO reinstating your registration
RECO Registrar's bulletin on brokers of record
RECO brokerage administration resources
RECO real estate professional search tool