Agency Relationships and Fiduciary Duties
Statutes and Administrative Rules Candidates Must Know
Questions in this domain test whether you can match a fact pattern to the right body of law. Build a mental map of the chapters:
Core chapters
- Ch. 452 - licensing, agency disclosures, prohibited conduct, discipline.
- Ch. 706 - conveyancing: what a deed must contain, signatures, recording, and the protection of later good-faith purchasers.
- Ch. 708 - mortgage satisfaction and release mechanics.
- Ch. 704 and Wis. Admin. Code ATCP 134 - landlord-tenant duties, security deposits, and rental practices.
- Ch. 703 - condominiums; ch. 766 - marital property, which is why a non-titled spouse's signature can be required on a conveyance.
- Ch. 106.50 - fair housing, whose Wisconsin protected classes go beyond the federal list (for example ancestry, marital status, lawful source of income, and family status).
- Ch. 458 - appraiser regulation; appraisals are not brokerage.
- Ch. 77.22 - the real estate transfer fee.
Worked example
A $300,000 sale generates a transfer fee of $3 per $1,000 of value, or $900, and a transfer return is filed with the Department of Revenue (with a separate return fee paid at recording). A candidate who instead computes 1% ($3,000) has confused the transfer fee with a commission or a doc-stamp tax from another state.
Trap to watch: questions often describe conduct that violates two bodies of law at once - for example, a discriminatory ad that is also an advertising-rule violation. Answer the question actually asked, and match the remedy (discipline, forfeiture, damages) to the statute cited.
Agency Relationships and Fiduciary Duties
Wisconsin does not create agency by accident. A licensee may work with a consumer as a customer (no agency) or as a client under a written agency agreement - a listing contract for a seller, a buyer agency agreement for a buyer. Showing property, giving a business card, or "helping out" does not by itself create a client relationship.
Statutory duties run in two tiers. To all parties, a licensee owes fair and honest treatment, good faith, disclosure of material adverse facts within the scope of the license, and accurate accounting of funds. To a client, the licensee additionally owes loyalty, confidentiality, and the affirmative duties described in the agency agreement. Confidentiality survives termination of the agreement.
Wisconsin permits multiple representation (the same firm representing both sides) only with the informed written consent of all parties, and permits designated agency, where different licensees in one firm represent different parties and do not share confidential information with each other. The brokerage, not the individual agent, is the agent - a nuance that appears in nearly every exam set.
Worked example
A buyer tells their agent, "I'd pay $20,000 over list." If the agent represents the buyer, that is confidential. If the agent is a subagent or the seller's agent, it must be disclosed. If the agent is a neutral transaction broker/customer-level helper, the buyer's statement is still confidential under the statute's confidentiality duty, so it cannot be relayed.
Trap: assuming dual agency is automatically prohibited (it is not, with consent) or that it is automatic when one firm lists and sells (it is not, without consent).