A purchase agreement in Dakota County, Minnesota is signed by both parties. The broker is acting as a dual agent with written informed consent from both buyer and seller. During the transaction, the buyer privately tells the dual agent that she would be willing to pay $15,000 more than her offered price if the seller counters. Under Minnesota dual agency law, what must the dual agent do with this information?
Correct Answer
A) Keep the buyer's statement confidential and not disclose it to the seller, because this is confidential negotiating information
Under Minnesota dual agency law (Minn. Stat. Ch. 82), even though a dual agent represents both buyer and seller, the dual agent is specifically prohibited from disclosing confidential negotiating information from one party to the other without that party's consent. The buyer's willingness to pay more than the offered price is precisely the type of confidential negotiating information that a dual agent must keep confidential. This is one of the key limitations on dual agents — they cannot use one party's confidential information to benefit the other party.
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Related Topics & Key Terms
Key Terms:
Related Concepts
Novation is the substitution of a new contract for an existing one, or the replacement of one party with a new party, with the consent of all parties involved. The original party is completely released from all obligations.
Offer and acceptance is the process by which one party proposes specific terms for a contract and the other party agrees to those exact terms, creating mutual assent. This mutual agreement, also called a meeting of the minds, is an essential element of every valid contract.
An option contract gives one party the exclusive right, but not the obligation, to purchase or lease a property at a specified price within a specified time period. The buyer pays option consideration to keep the option open.
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