Disclosure Regarding Real Estate Agency Relationship

The listing agent delivers the disclosure to the seller and obtains a signed receipt before the seller signs the listing agreement. The agent working with the buyer delivers it to the buyer and obtains a signed receipt before the buyer signs an offer. Where one agent works with both parties, that agent delivers to both.

The disclosure is delivered as early as practicable in the relationship — it is a "before you sign anything" document. Confirmation of the actual relationship then appears in the contract, signed by the parties.

Keep the receipts. In an agency dispute, the signed acknowledgment with a date on it is the whole argument.

Before the client signs. For the seller: before the listing agreement. For the buyer: before the offer — and in practice, at or before the buyer representation agreement, since as of 2025 that agreement itself must be in place before an offer is written.

Confirmation happens at contract, inside the purchase agreement. If the agency structure changes mid-transaction — a second licensee in the same firm brings the buyer, creating dual agency at the firm level — the disclosure and confirmation must be updated in writing at that point, not explained verbally.

Agency failures reach further than most disclosure failures because they go to the relationship rather than the property. Section 2079.14's delivery requirements and the confirmation requirement are prerequisites, and a licensee who never delivered the disclosure has a difficult time defending an undisclosed dual agency.

The consequences can include a claim for breach of fiduciary duty, a challenge to the right to compensation, and DRE discipline. Undisclosed dual agency in particular has produced compensation-forfeiture outcomes in California case law — this is the disclosure where the licensee's own money is most directly at risk.

The delivery receipt and the contract confirmation are the two documents that decide these disputes, and both are free to get right.

Delivering it with the disclosure package. Too late. It goes before the listing and before the offer.

Missing firm-level dual agency. If two licensees in the same firm represent the two parties, the firm is a dual agent. Disclose and confirm it.

Explaining dual agency verbally. Written consent, or it did not happen.

Leaving the confirmation section of the contract blank. The confirmation is a separate statutory step from the initial disclosure.

Sharing price flexibility as a dual agent. The statute prohibits it without express written permission.