Question

Real Estate agents have a fiduciary duty to their clients. This has tremendous legal and ethical consequences. Explain these additional responsibilities and requirements with an emancipated minor who is being forced by family members to sell her family home.

Answer 1

If a person is a  real estate agent, the basic fiduciary duties he/she should follow are -

1. Client first - Which means you should not hide any informtion - be it good or bad w.r.t the property. Even If the person is an agent for both the buyer and seller, all the positives and negatives of the property should be disclosed to both the buyer and seller. Also, the agent should check all the documents are legally correct and the property is free from any legal issues.

2. Tranparency - What ever you convey the information, it should be tranparent. In fact, the fees and comission should be informed in a trasparent manner.

3. Confidentiality - If the person is an agent for a buyer and if he requests you to not disclose his details till the deal is agree, he/she should not disclose who is buying it. Also, if the person is agent to a seller, and if the true reason for selling the propery may lead to furhter worsening of the price, you should not disclose that reason to the buyer or buyers agent.

4. Accountability - The agent should take responsibility for the activities of his principal right from the deal agreement till the closure. At times the clauses in the initial agreeent favouring one party only i.e. either buyer or seller. In those cases, it's the responsibility of agent to inform both the parties about it and suggest for corrections.

In the above where an emancipated minor is forced to sell the property, if he is agent to the seller, he should convience the minor first to get an amincable understanding with his/her guardian/parents for selling the property, as the minor may not have correct understanding why the guardian/parents want to sell the property. Or if the agent understands that the guardian/parents intentions are not good, he should not deal with the property and explain them the legal consequences they are going to face in the future.

Else, if the person is an agent to buyer only and he came to know that the minor is forced to sell the property, he should disclose this information to buyer and advise the buyer, not to proceed with buying this property as they may face legal consequences in the future.