West Virginia Real Estate Broker Exam — All Questions

Under the Commission's rules, the notice of agency relationship and consent form must be signed by all parties to the transaction:

• a.at the closing table, before funds are disbursed
• b.prior to the initiation of negotiations✓
• c.within five days after an offer is accepted
• d.at the licensee's discretion, provided a copy reaches the file

Rule 174-1-16.1 requires that the Commission's notice of agency relationship and consent form "be signed by the licensee and the client at the time the agency relationship is created," and that "[p]rior to the initiation of negotiations, each licensee's agency form shall be signed by all parties." The broker must give a copy to everyone who signs and keep a copy in the transaction file, and all members of a team must be listed on or attached to any form a team member signs. Timing is the substance of this rule: a disclosure delivered at closing, or five days after acceptance, arrives after the party has already revealed a negotiating position. Leaving the timing to the licensee is precisely what the words "prior to the initiation of negotiations" foreclose.

A change in a West Virginia licensee's agency status makes the notice of agency relationship signed earlier misleading. The licensee must:

• a.prepare a corrected form and present it at once to all parties✓
• b.note the change in the transaction file and mention it at closing
• c.wait for the parties to ask before issuing any new disclosure
• d.notify the Commission and let it advise the parties of the change

Rule 174-1-16.3 provides that if a change in a licensee's agency status "makes an earlier disclosure inaccurate, incomplete or misleading, the licensee shall prepare a corrected form and immediately present it to all parties to the transaction," and that the corrected form must be dated and acknowledged in writing by all parties. The duty is the licensee's own and it is immediate, so a file note, a mention at closing, or waiting to be asked all leave the parties acting on a disclosure the licensee already knows is wrong. Failing to disclose the representation correctly on the Commission's form is separately a ground for discipline under W. Va. Code §30-40-19(a)(12). The Commission adjudicates such failures; it does not deliver the correction for the licensee.

A West Virginia licensee wishes to act for both the buyer and the seller in one transaction. The licensee may do so only with:

• a.the written consent of both the buyer and the seller✓
• b.the seller's written consent, because the seller pays the fee
• c.the responsible broker's written approval of the arrangement
• d.the Commission's written approval for that transaction

Rule 174-1-16.2 states plainly that "[a] licensee may not be the agent for both the buyer and the seller without first obtaining the written consent of both the buyer and the seller." W. Va. Code §30-40-19(a)(7) reaches the same conduct from the disciplinary side, making it a ground for sanction to act "for more than one party in a transaction without the knowledge and written consent of all parties for whom he or she acts." Both texts say written, so a verbal go-ahead protects no one. Who pays the fee does not decide representation, so the seller's consent alone leaves the buyer's interest unaddressed. The broker's approval is internal to the firm. And the Commission issues no transaction-by-transaction dual agency authorizations.

On the Commission's notice of agency relationship form, the West Virginia licensee must disclose in writing whether the licensee represents:

• a.the party who first contacted the licensee about the property
• b.the party who will pay the licensee's compensation at closing
• c.the party whose interests the licensee considers better supported
• d.the seller, the buyer, both, the landlord, the tenant, or both✓

W. Va. Code §30-40-26(d) requires every licensee to disclose in writing, on the Commission's notice of agency relationship form, "whether the licensee represents the seller, the buyer, the seller and the buyer, the landlord, the tenant, or the landlord and the tenant," and to do so "prior to any person signing any contract for representation by a licensee or a contract for the sale or purchase of real estate." The list is closed and the form names the categories, so the disclosure is a choice among defined relationships rather than a description of circumstances. Who called first, who pays at closing, and where the licensee thinks the merits lie are all facts about the transaction; none of them is the representation the statute makes the licensee state.