Roles
What is fiduciary duty?
Fiduciary duty is the legal obligation an agent owes a client to act in that client's best interest — including loyalty, confidentiality, full disclosure, obedience to lawful instruction, and reasonable care.
It is what distinguishes representation from mere assistance. An agent showing a property to an unrepresented buyer owes honesty; an agent representing that buyer owes loyalty, which is a substantially higher bar.
Confidentiality typically survives the end of the relationship. An agent may not later disclose that a former seller would have accepted less, even after the transaction has closed.
The duties can conflict with each other, which is why dual agency is so heavily regulated: it puts an agent in a position where satisfying one client's loyalty interest necessarily damages another's.
Related terms
Dual agency is when a single agent or brokerage represents both the buyer and the seller in the same transaction, creating an inherent conflict between two clients with opposing interests.
A buyer's agent represents the purchaser in a property transaction, owing them fiduciary duties and advising on price, terms, negotiation and process — as distinct from the listing agent, who represents the seller.
A listing agreement is the contract between a seller and a brokerage that authorises the brokerage to market the property, setting the price, duration, compensation and the extent of exclusivity.
Disclosure is the seller's obligation to inform buyers of known material defects and other legally specified facts about a property, before the buyer commits to purchase.