Mississippi Administrative Code › Title 30 - Professions and Occupations › Part 1601 - Mississippi Real Estate Commission › Chapter 4 - Agency Relationship Disclosure › Rule 30-1601-4.2 - Definitions

Current through June 25, 2024
A. "Agency" shall mean the relationship
				created when one person, the Principal (client), delegates to another, the
				agent, the right to act on his behalf in a real estate transaction and to
				exercise some degree of discretion while so acting. Agency may be entered into
				by expressed agreement, implied through the actions of the agent and or
				ratified after the fact by the principal accepting the benefits of an agent's
				previously unauthorized act. An agency gives rise to a fiduciary relationship
				and imposes on the agent, as the fiduciary of the principal, certain duties,
				obligations, and high standards of good faith and loyalty.
B. "Agent" shall mean one who is authorized
				to act on behalf of and represent another. A real estate broker is the agent of
				the principal (client) to whom a fiduciary obligation is owed. Salespersons
				licensed under the broker are subagents of the Broker, regardless of the
				location of the office in which the salesperson works.
C. "Client" shall mean the person to whom the
				agent owes a fiduciary duty. It can be a seller, buyer, landlord, tenant or
				both.
D. "Compensation" is that fee
				paid to a broker for the rendering of services.
Compensation, when considered alone, is not the determining
				  factor in an agency relationship. The relationship can be created regardless of
				  whether the seller pays the fee, the buyer pays the fee, both pay the fee or
				  neither pays a fee.
E.
				"Customer" shall mean that person not represented in a real estate transaction.
				It may be the buyer, seller, landlord or tenant.
F. "Disclosed Dual Agent" shall mean that
				agent representing both parties to a real estate transaction with the informed
				consent of both parties, with written understanding of specific duties and
				representation to be afforded each party. There may be situations where
				disclosed dual agency presents conflicts of interest that cannot be resolved
				without breach of duty to one party or another. Brokers who practice disclosed
				dual agency should do so with the utmost caution to protect consumers and
				themselves from inadvertent violation of demanding common law standards of
				disclosed dual agency.
G.
				"Fiduciary Responsibilities" are those duties due the principal (client) in a
				real estate transaction are:
(1) 'Loyalty' -
				the agent must put the interests of the principal above the interests of the
				agent or any third party.
(2)
				'Obedience' - the agent agrees to obey any lawful instruction from the
				principal in the execution of the transaction that is the subject of the
				agency.
(3) 'Disclosure' - the
				agent must disclose to the principal any information the agent becomes aware of
				in connection with the agency.
(4)
				'Confidentiality' - the agent must keep private information provided by the
				principal and information which would give a customer an advantage over the
				principal strictly confidential, unless the agent has the principal's
				permission to disclose the information. This duty lives on after the agency
				relationship is terminated.
(5)
				'Reasonable skill, care and diligence' - the agent must perform all duties with
				the care and diligence which may be reasonably expected of someone undertaking
				such duties.
(6) 'Full accounting'
				- the agent must provide a full accounting of any money or goods coming into
				the agent's possession which belong to the principal or other
				parties.