Disclosure of Expected Offers and Multiple Offers in BC

In a competitive market you may suspect other buyers are bidding, and you want to know what you can be told. Sellers and their realtors face the same question from the other side: what can be shared, and with whom.

This article sets out the general duties in BC's real estate rules that shape those conversations. What may be said about a particular competing or expected offer depends on the facts, your agreements and the current rules, so check with your realtor in writing and a lawyer.

This article covers the law of British Columbia.

Start with whose client you are

Under the Rules, a client is the principal who has engaged the licensee to provide real estate services, and an unrepresented party is a party to a trade who is not a client of a licensee for that trade.

Before providing trading services, a licensee must disclose whether or not they will represent the party as a client. Knowing the answer tells you whose confidences the licensee is bound to protect.

Confidentiality and disclosure to a client

A licensee owes a client duties that include keeping client information confidential, disclosing all known material information about the services, and communicating all offers in a timely, objective and unbiased manner.

These can pull in different directions. A licensee protects a seller's confidential information, and also must tell the seller about every offer. Those duties can be modified only by written agreement, and the brokerage must still protect confidential information.

Because of the confidentiality duty, a licensee acting for the seller may be limited in what they can tell other buyers. Exactly how far that goes depends on the facts and the client's instructions, so it is worth asking your own realtor and confirming with a lawyer.

Honesty toward everyone

A licensee must act honestly and with reasonable care and skill, including toward parties who are not clients. If the licensee represents a client in the trade and you are an unrepresented party, the licensee must also tell you the risks of receiving assistance from them and recommend you seek independent professional advice.

• Do not rely on a verbal comment about other offers as if it were a guarantee.
• Ask for anything important in writing.
• If something you were told turns out to be false, keep a record and consider a complaint.

Conflicts when more than one client is involved

Multiple offers can create conflicts if one brokerage acts for more than one party. A brokerage must not engage in dual agency, with one exception for a trade in a remote location where it is impracticable for the parties to be provided trading services by different licensees. Designating one or more designated agents does not by itself constitute dual agency unless the designated licensee represents both sides as clients.

For the remote-location exception, the licensee must first make the required disclosure to each party, then enter a written agreement of dual agency with each party. The brokerage must also promptly give the superintendent the disclosure.

Under designated agency, a brokerage may designate licensees by written agreement. Other licensees at the brokerage then owe no section 30 duties to that client, but the brokerage must still supervise and treat clients even-handedly.

Where a licensee would otherwise act for conflicting clients in one trade, the licensee must provide trading services to none of them or represent only one, and may represent only one if all clients give written agreement.

What to do next

• Ask whether the licensee represents you or the seller, and get the answer in writing.
• Ask whether the brokerage is also acting for any other buyer on the same property.
• Read what you are signing about how information will be handled.
• Keep records of every message about offers and deadlines.
• A complaint about a licensee goes in writing, with particulars, to the superintendent.
• Talk to a lawyer before making an offer if the rules on disclosure matter to your decision.

Conduct unbecoming is conduct the superintendent judges contrary to the public interest or bringing the industry into disrepute.

Frequently asked questions