Opinion ID: 1953412
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Dual Agency

Text: Moreover, by his own admission, Jenkins was acting as a dual agent, representing Brooks as her agent in the sale of both her home and her purchase of William Strauss' property, while at the same time representing William in the sale of his home. Benjamin testified that he had no knowledge of this dual representation, knew of no relationship between Brooks and Jenkins, and was not aware that Jenkins was also selling her house. Jenkins, on the other hand, testified that he told Benjamin that Ms. Brooks was my client and that she was the purchaser of the house. [163] Thus, Jenkins testified, He knew that I was representing Ms. Brooks as well as representing him. He should have known that I was in a dual capacity. Evans, however, explained that to protect both the buyer and the seller, it is the standard of practice in the real estate business to disclose a dual agency relationship in writing to both the purchaser and the seller. As he put it, serving two masters is rather difficult unless both masters know that you are serving them [and] the only way to do that in real estate is in writing. Nonetheless, Jenkins did not do so, and the record makes clear that Benjamin did not understand the implications of Jenkins' dual representation. Benjamin's confusion was further exacerbated by the fact that the record indicates that Jenkins never gave him a copy of the sales contract setting out the troublesome provisions that would have been contrary to what he wanted  a sale that provided him with a lump sum in the amount of at least $120,000.