Legal Blog - Agency

 

What is a non-agent?

By:
Aug 5, 2016

Agency

A non-agent is a person who does not represent the customer as an agent of that client. Rather that person is simply performing ministerial acts on behalf of the customer. As a result, there is no agency relationship formed between the person and the customer, and therefore the person owes no fiduciary duties to the customer.

Ministerial acts are those routine acts that a licensee can perform for a person that do not involve discretion or the exercise of the licensee’s own judgment. They are activities that assist the transaction to go forward, rather than being a service to the individual customer. They do not require any expertise or substantive real estate knowledge. They may include transcribing the terms of an offer into the appropriate paperwork, opening the door to the home inspector, forwarding paperwork to the lender, forwarding offers and counteroffers to the other side etc. When working with a customer, be very careful not to perform acts that might be considered a service to a customer. Such service might be interpreted as being contrary to the best interest of the customer.

Click here to view an interactive map on agency relationships. link to this url:
http://www.inman.com/news/2012/02/14/the-new-agency-laws-real-estate
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