A California listing agent delivers the required agency disclosure form to the seller before taking the listing, but does not obtain the seller's signature acknowledging receipt. The listing agreement is signed and the property is marketed. What is the most accurate legal consequence under California law?

Correct Answer

B) A technical violation; the listing remains valid and the signature should be obtained promptly

Civil Code § 2079.14 does not stop at delivery: the agent who provides the agency disclosure form must also obtain a signed acknowledgment of receipt, and § 2079.15 supplies the substitute only where the party refuses to sign, in the form of a signed declaration of the facts of the refusal. An unsigned form is therefore a genuine statutory violation the Department of Real Estate can act on, not merely a thin file. What it is not is a defect in the contract: the validity of the listing, and of any transaction under it, does not turn on the receipt signature, so the cure is to obtain the signature, or the declaration of refusal, as soon as practicable.