Does my real estate agent have a legal duty to protect my interests as a buyer?

In Ontario, real estate agents are regulated under the Trust in Real Estate Services Act (TRESA), which replaced REBBA 2002. When you sign a buyer representation agreement with an agent, they owe you specific duties: to promote and protect your interests, to be honest with you, to disclose material information affecting your decision, to maintain confidentiality, and to exercise reasonable care, skill, and diligence.

These duties are grounded in the representation agreement and the law. Your agent must tell you about known defects, conflicts of interest, and material facts about the property or the seller that you would want to know. Multiple representation (where one agent represents both buyer and seller) is now prohibited in Ontario — you and the seller cannot be represented by the same brokerage in a transaction without explicit written consent, and even then the rules are strict.

Your real estate lawyer has a separate, parallel duty to you — they are only your lawyer and owe you independent professional and fiduciary obligations. Having both a competent agent and a competent lawyer working for you provides complementary protection.