Agency Relationships, Fiduciary Duties, and Disclosures
How agency arises
Agency is created by express agreement, typically a written brokerage agreement signed before services are performed, and it can also arise by implication from conduct. The parties are the principal (client), the agent (licensee and brokerage), and the customer, who receives honesty and fair dealing but not fiduciary loyalty.
The fiduciary package
Memorize the duties: obedience to lawful instructions, loyalty, disclosure of material facts, confidentiality, accounting for money and documents, and reasonable care and skill. Confidentiality survives termination of the relationship; the other duties generally end when the agency ends.
Wyoming practice points
Know how Wyoming statutes and Commission rules define the permitted relationship types and when written disclosure must be given. Dual agency, where the brokerage represents both sides, requires informed written consent from all parties, and some conflicts cannot be cured by consent at all-an agent's undisclosed personal stake in a property is one of them.
Traps
- Confusing customer with client: a buyer working with the seller's agent is a customer, and that agent owes loyalty to the seller.
- Assuming confidentiality dies at closing. It does not.
- Believing "I was just the facilitator" excuses failing to disclose a known material defect.
Worked example
A seller's agent learns the buyer will pay $20,000 above list. That information is material to the seller-client and must be passed along. Flip the facts-the agent represents the buyer and learns the seller is desperate-and the agent may use it to the buyer's advantage while still disclosing required material facts about the property.