New Agency Disclosure Requirements for New York State:
Prior to the revisions to Section 443 of the Real Property Law, only one agency relationship disclosure form was required for buyer/seller and landlord/tenant transactions. The combined form used the terms "seller/landlord" and"buyer/tenant" interchangeably. On and after January 1, 2007, the combined form will no longer be permitted and, rather, two separate disclosure forms will be required; one for seller/buyer transactions and another for landlord/tenant transactions. The two forms provide expanded, clearer definitions of the different agency relationships and explain the fiduciary duties owed by brokers and salespeople under each type of agency relationship.
The revised statute also defines dual agency. While the concept of dual agency is not new, Real Property Law, Section 443 now provides a clear definition of this type of agency relationship. A dual agent is defined by the revised statute as, "an agent who is acting as a buyer’s agent and a seller’s agent in the same transaction."
The revised statute also adds a definition for "designated sales associate." A designated sales associate is defined by the statute as: " a licensed real estate salesman or associate broker, working under the supervision of a real estate broker, who has been assigned to represent a client when a different client is also represented by such real estate broker in the same transaction." Essentially, a broker who is acting as a dual agent will be permitted to appoint two different real estate salespersons and/or associate brokers to represent each party to the transaction. The representative broker is still required to provide supervision to the designated sales associates. For this reason, and as in a pure dual agency situation, when designated sales associates are appointed, the consumers are not afforded all of the fiduciary duties inherent in a single agency arrangement. Specifically, the designated sales associate and representative broker cannot provide the fiduciary duty of undivided loyalty. The new agency disclosure form contains a disclaimer to this fact.
The link to these two disclosure forms is at www.dos.state.ny.us/lcns/realestate.html. In accordance with statute, each is required to be printed on a one page, two-sided form.
