16. ARBITRATION

16.1 Mandatory Arbitration

By becoming and remaining a Participant or Subscriber in the MLS, each Participant and Subscriber agrees to submit disputes arising out of the real estate business which also arises out of, or is in conjunction with, any listing filed with the MLS or any appraisal, to binding arbitration which shall be assigned to an EBRDI Shareholder’s Association with any other Participant or Subscriber of this MLS, or Participants or Subscribers of any other MLS who are authorized to have access to this MLS under section 6 of these rules. The California Code of Ethics shall govern such arbitrations and Arbitration Manual as from time to time amended which is hereby incorporate by reference. This shall be deemed an arbitration agreement within the meaning of Part 3, Title 9 of the California Code of Civil Procedure. Failure to submit to arbitration and abide by the arbitration award, including but not limited to timely payment of the arbitration award as provided herein shall be a violation of these MLS rules and subjects Participants and Subscribers to possible suspension from the MLS and/or other penalties.

16.1.1 Administration of all Arbitrations & Hearings

Administration of all arbitrations shall be delegated to one of the Shareholder Associations. Assignment of arbitration/rules violation responsibility shall be a follows:

  1. If respondent is a member of a Shareholder’s Association, responsibility shall be assigned to that Shareholder’s Association.
  2. If respondent is an MLS Only Participant, the complaint shall be assigned to the Shareholder Service Center where the respondent receives MLS services.
  3. All others shall be assigned as deemed appropriate by EBRDI.

16.2 Other Arbitration Agreements

Notwithstanding any other provision of these rules, if any Participant or Subscriber enters into an agreement (either before or after a dispute arises) with another Participant or Subscriber to arbitrate a dispute utilizing non-EBRDI facilities, such persons are not bound to arbitrate the dispute covered by such agreement under these rules utilizing EBRDI facilities.

16.3 Arbitration between Association Members

Notwithstanding any other provision of these rules:

  1. If all disputants are Participants or Subscribers of EBRDI, they shall arbitrate in accordance with 16.1.1.
  2. If the disputants are Participants or Subscribers of MLS’s other than EBRDI, they shall arbitrate in accordance with any applicable regional or shared professional standards agreement. In the absence of such an agreement, the disputants remain obligated to arbitrate at the California Association of REALTORS® (“C.A.R.”) in accordance with the C.A.R Inter-Board Arbitration Rules.

16.4 Arbitration Involving Non-Association Members – See 16.1.1 above

16.5 Same Firm

Between persons from the same firm shall not be available and is not mandated by these rules unless covered by arbitration rules relating to the obligations of Association members to arbitrate.

16.6 Timing

For purposes of the section 16, the duty to arbitrate shall be determined when facts giving rise to the dispute occurred. Therefore, a Participant or Subscriber shall have a duty to arbitrate if the person was an MLS Participant or Subscriber when facts giving rise to the dispute occurred. Termination of MLS participation or subscription shall not relieve the arbitration duty under this section for disputes that arose when the person was an MLS Participant or Subscriber. Requests for arbitration must be filed within one hundred and eighty (180) days after the closing of the transaction, if any, or after the facts constituting the matter could have been known if the exercise of reasonable diligence, whichever is later.