Designated Agency

Effective June 15, 2018, BC operates under designated agency: the fiduciary duties of an agency relationship are owed by the individual licensee to the client, NOT by the brokerage. This means two licensees within the same brokerage may represent opposing parties in the same transaction, and section 63(2) of the Real Estate Services Rules says in as many words that designating them is not dual agency. Dual agency, where one licensee represents both sides, is prohibited by section 63. Section 64 carves out one exception, for a property in a remote location under-served by licensees where it is impracticable to use two.

Nobody grants that exception, which is the part most explanations get wrong. The brokerage assesses it itself. What it must then do, before acting, is disclose to each party on a form the superintendent approves, carrying a statement signed by the managing broker setting out the reasons, and sign a written dual-agency agreement with each of them. Only after those agreements exist does the disclosure go to the superintendent. The consumer protection here is the document you are asked to sign, not a permission granted upstream.

Section 65 handles every other conflicted case, and it is the one a Lower Mainland buyer is far likelier to meet: two of the same licensee's buyers wanting the same property. The licensee cannot serve both. They must either step off the trade entirely or keep one client and release the other in writing, on an approved form that names the conflict, lists the duties they will no longer owe, and states plainly that they may already hold confidential information about you.

All clients must sign a Disclosure of Representation in Trading Services (DORT) form before substantive trading services are provided. The DORT explains the agency relationship being established and the duties owed.