The Brokerage Relationships in Real Estate Transactions Act, known as BRRETA, is the Georgia statute that governs every agency relationship a real estate broker can form in the state. Codified at O.C.G.A. 10-6A-1 through 10-6A-16, it defines who a broker represents, requires that representation be put in writing, and spells out the duties the broker owes to clients and to the other people in the deal. If you are buying, selling, or leasing property in Georgia, BRRETA is the law that tells you what your agent must do for you and what they are allowed to do for the other side.
The Five Relationship Types a Georgia Broker Can Have
BRRETA recognizes five distinct relationships: seller’s agent, buyer’s agent, landlord’s agent, dual agent, and transaction broker. The label matters, because each one carries a different set of legal obligations.
A seller’s agent works exclusively for the seller. The broker must seek a sale at the price and terms set in the engagement, timely present all offers (even after the property is under contract), disclose material facts the broker actually knows, advise the seller to get expert help on matters outside the broker’s expertise, and account for all money received.1Justia. Georgia Code 10-6A-5 – Duties and Responsibilities of Broker Engaged by Seller Confidentiality runs one direction: the broker protects what the seller designates as confidential unless the law requires disclosure.
A buyer’s agent owes a mirror set of duties to the buyer. One wrinkle applies here: when the buyer is purchasing with seller financing or a loan assumption, the broker must disclose to the seller any material adverse facts the broker actually knows about the buyer’s financial ability to close, and in a residential deal, whether the buyer intends to occupy the property as a principal residence.2FindLaw. Georgia Code Title 10 Commerce and Trade 10-6A-7
A transaction broker assists both parties without representing either one. No agency relationship is formed, so the broker owes no loyalty or confidentiality. The role is limited to ministerial acts that do not require professional judgment on either side.3Justia. Georgia Code 10-6A-14 – Ministerial Acts Explained; Required Actions of Transaction Brokers; False Information A transaction broker can locate property, share market data, fill in preprinted contract forms as a scribe, relay offers, help find inspectors and lenders, and point out schools and amenities. They cannot advocate or give strategic advice. This structure fits a for-sale-by-owner seller who wants help with paperwork and logistics without taking on an advocate.
Dual agency is covered below because it carries the strictest consumer-protection requirements of any of the five.
Designated Agency Inside One Brokerage
When two licensees at the same firm end up on opposite sides of the same deal, the brokerage can use designated agency instead of dual agency. Different licensees inside the firm represent opposing parties while maintaining separate, independent representation, and the supervising broker must prevent confidential information from crossing between them. Both clients keep a dedicated advocate, which is why larger brokerages tend to prefer this structure.
Why BRRETA Requires a Written Engagement
BRRETA requires that brokerage relationships be established through written engagement agreements. A broker performing services for a client owes only the duties set out in the statute plus whatever additional duties the parties agree to in writing. A verbal promise to represent you does not create an enforceable agency relationship under BRRETA.
If the written engagement does not specify an expiration date and neither party terminates it, the relationship automatically expires one year after it began.4FindLaw. Georgia Code Title 10 Commerce and Trade 10-6A-9 After termination or expiration, the broker’s remaining duties narrow to accounting for money and property from the engagement and protecting any confidential information the client designated during the relationship. Those confidentiality obligations survive indefinitely unless the client later permits disclosure, the law requires it, or the information becomes public from another source.
One provision surprises brokers and clients alike: when the duty to keep a client’s confidence collides with the duty not to give customers false information, the duty not to lie wins. The statute says no cause of action arises against a broker who reveals client information to avoid giving a customer false information.4FindLaw. Georgia Code Title 10 Commerce and Trade 10-6A-9
Clients Get Full Duties. Customers Get Honesty.
BRRETA draws a sharp line between clients and customers. A client has a written brokerage engagement and receives the full range of duties: loyalty, confidentiality, advice, and advocacy. A customer is someone the broker works with but does not represent, and the duties owed to customers are thinner but still legally enforceable.
Every broker, no matter the relationship, must treat all parties honestly and avoid providing false information. A seller’s agent assisting an unrepresented buyer can perform ministerial acts for that buyer without creating an agency relationship, but the agent cannot knowingly mislead the buyer about the property’s condition or the terms of the deal.1Justia. Georgia Code 10-6A-5 – Duties and Responsibilities of Broker Engaged by Seller
Brokers must also exercise reasonable skill and care in every transaction. Contracts must be properly executed, deadlines tracked, earnest money handled according to the agreement, and the broker must advise clients to seek expert help on matters beyond the broker’s own competence. Negligence in any of those tasks can create liability even when the broker acted in good faith.
What Brokers Must Disclose, and What They Don’t
BRRETA’s disclosure obligations apply to seller’s agents, buyer’s agents, and transaction brokers alike. The core rule is the same across all three: brokers must timely disclose adverse material facts about a property’s physical condition that the broker actually knows and that the buyer could not discover through a reasonably diligent inspection.1Justia. Georgia Code 10-6A-5 – Duties and Responsibilities of Broker Engaged by Seller
The statute specifically covers material defects, environmental contamination, and facts other statutes require to be disclosed. Brokers also must disclose known adverse physical conditions in the immediate neighborhood within one mile of the property that the buyer could not discover through diligent inspection or review of publicly available government records such as zoning ordinances, flood plain maps, crime statistics, and school district boundaries.3Justia. Georgia Code 10-6A-14 – Ministerial Acts Explained; Required Actions of Transaction Brokers; False Information
There is an important limitation. Brokers are not required to investigate or independently verify potential defects. The duty is triggered by actual knowledge, not constructive knowledge. If a broker has no reason to know about a foundation crack hidden behind drywall, the broker has no duty to find it. Once the broker becomes aware of it, the duty to disclose kicks in immediately.
Deaths, Crimes, and Other Stigmatized-Property Questions
Georgia law separately protects brokers on stigmatized properties. Under O.C.G.A. 44-1-16, no cause of action arises against a broker for failing to disclose that a property was the site of a homicide, felony, suicide, or death by accidental or natural causes.5Justia. Georgia Code 44-1-16 – Failure to Disclose in Real Estate Transaction The same protection applies to the former presence of an occupant with a disease that medical evidence shows is highly unlikely to be transmitted through occupancy.
One critical exception: if a buyer directly asks whether a death or crime occurred on the property, the broker must answer truthfully to the best of their individual knowledge. The broker is not required to answer, however, if doing so would violate federal or state fair housing law.
Dual Agency Requires Specific Written Consent
Dual agency arises when a single broker represents both the buyer and the seller in the same transaction. BRRETA allows it, but only with the written consent of every client involved. The consent form must contain specific language: a description of the transactions covered, a statement that the broker represents two clients whose interests may be adverse, an explanation that confidential information requested by one client will not be disclosed to the other (except as the statute requires), and a clear statement that the client does not have to agree to dual agency.6Justia. Georgia Code 10-6A-12 – Broker Acting as Dual Agent
The consent also has to require disclosure of any material relationship between the broker’s affiliated licensees and the other client, such as a personal, familial, or business connection that could impair fair judgment. A broker who acts as a dual agent without obtaining proper written consent has committed unauthorized dual agency, one of the more serious violations GREC investigates. If a broker proposes dual agency to you, read the consent carefully; you are allowed to say no.
Fair Housing Compliance Is Built Into BRRETA
BRRETA’s duty sections require seller’s agents, buyer’s agents, and the other broker roles to comply with all fair housing and civil rights statutes. The federal Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in housing based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, and disability.7U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Housing Discrimination Under the Fair Housing Act Georgia’s own fair housing law, at O.C.G.A. 8-3-200 through 8-3-223, mirrors those protections.
The Georgia license law reinforces this by listing discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, or national origin as a specific unfair trade practice that can trigger disciplinary action.8Justia. Georgia Code 43-40-25 – Violations by Licensees, Schools, and Instructors; Sanctions; Unfair Trade Practices Steering buyers toward or away from neighborhoods based on protected characteristics, or pressuring homeowners to sell by exploiting fears about demographic changes, can draw both GREC sanctions and federal enforcement action.
Where Your Earnest Money Is Supposed to Live
Any broker who accepts earnest money, down payments, security deposits, rents, or other trust funds must maintain a separate, federally insured trust or escrow account at a financial institution in Georgia.9Justia. Georgia Code 43-40-20 – Trust or Escrow Account A broker who does not normally handle trust funds is not required to maintain the account preemptively, but if trust funds arrive, the broker must open the account within one business day of receipt.
The broker has to register the account with GREC, including the bank name and account number. GREC can examine any trust account with reasonable cause and conducts an examination during each renewal period. In some cases the commission will accept an independent CPA’s written report confirming the account is properly maintained in place of a direct examination.9Justia. Georgia Code 43-40-20 – Trust or Escrow Account Commingling client funds with personal or business money is specifically listed as an unfair trade practice under the license law. Brokers must also keep transaction records for at least three years, accessible on request.10Georgia Real Estate Commission. GREC RENews January 2021
If a Broker Violates BRRETA, What You Can Do
Anyone who believes a licensee violated Georgia’s real estate license law can file a complaint with GREC by submitting a Request for Investigation form. The form must be notarized and include the property address, transaction date, and a written statement of facts with supporting documents. The statute of limitations for filing is three years from the event.11Georgia Real Estate Commission. Request for an Investigation
GREC investigates license law violations only. The commission does not resolve monetary disputes about earnest money, repairs, or commission splits between licensees. An investigator gathers evidence, interviews the parties, and prepares a report. If the evidence supports it, the commission can hold a formal hearing and subpoena witnesses to testify under oath. Investigative materials stay confidential unless a formal hearing is ordered.11Georgia Real Estate Commission. Request for an Investigation
GREC’s available sanctions include reprimand, license suspension for a definite period or indefinitely with conditions on restoration, license revocation (and in some cases a simultaneous downgrade of a broker’s license to a salesperson’s license), fines of up to $1,000 per violation capped at $5,000 per disciplinary proceeding, mandatory education, trust account audits by an independent accountant, and license restrictions the commission deems necessary for public protection.8Justia. Georgia Code 43-40-25 – Violations by Licensees, Schools, and Instructors; Sanctions; Unfair Trade Practices GREC can also refuse to grant or renew a license and require reimbursement of its administrative, investigative, and legal costs.
Civil Claims for Financial Losses
GREC sanctions are administrative consequences. They do not put money back in your pocket. A client who suffers financial losses because a broker breached statutory duties can sue for damages under Georgia contract and tort law. The most common scenario is a broker who fails to disclose a known defect, leaving the buyer to discover it after closing and shoulder repair costs the broker could have warned them about.
Georgia’s Fair Business Practices Act adds another layer. Under O.C.G.A. 10-1-399, anyone injured by a deceptive trade practice can bring a civil action for actual damages, reasonable attorney’s fees, and litigation expenses. For intentional violations, courts must award three times actual damages.12Justia. Georgia Code 10-1-399 A broker who intentionally conceals a property defect to close a deal risks paying triple the buyer’s losses on top of the buyer’s legal fees.
Georgia also maintains a Real Estate Education, Research, and Recovery Fund under O.C.G.A. 43-40-22, which provides a backstop for consumers who obtain a judgment against a licensee but cannot collect. The fund is a last resort when the broker lacks the assets to pay, not a replacement for a lawsuit.