Dual Agency & Designated Agency Disclosure & Informed Consent — Missouri Edition Template

Dual agency — one brokerage (or one agent) representing both buyer and seller in the same transaction — is the most heavily regulated conflict of interest in residential real estate. A handful of states ban it outright; the rest permit it only with the informed written consent of both parties, obtained after meaningful disclosure of what the parties are giving up. Get the consent wrong and the consequences stack fast: license discipline, commission forfeiture, and rescission or damages claims grounded in breach of fiduciary duty. Courts have long treated undisclosed dual agency as a fiduciary breach that can void the broker's right to any commission.

This 4-page Informed Consent form does the disclosure properly rather than minimally. It explains in plain language what agency representation normally includes (undivided loyalty, full disclosure, advocacy on price and terms); exactly which duties are limited in dual agency (the agent cannot advocate for either side on price, cannot disclose one party's willingness to pay more or accept less, cannot share confidential negotiating positions); what duties remain intact (honesty, disclosure of material property facts, accounting, confidentiality); and the designated agency alternative where the brokerage appoints separate agents for each party, where state law permits. Both buyer and seller sign separate acknowledgment and consent blocks, with transaction-specific identification and timing language confirming consent was obtained before or at the point dual agency arose.

The 50-state notes summarize the landscape: consent-based regimes (e.g., New York's RPL § 443 disclosure form with dual agency consent), designated agency states, transaction-brokerage states that replace agency entirely, and the states where dual agency is prohibited. This template supplements — and in states with mandatory statutory forms, accompanies — the state-prescribed disclosure. Not a substitute for your state's required form where one exists.

About this Missouri Edition: Every one of the 12 templates has been redrafted around Missouri's real estate license law (RSMo Chapter 339) and its brokerage relationship statutes (RSMo §§ 339.710–339.860), which give Missouri a statutory menu of seller's agent, buyer's agent, dual agent (lawful only with written consent of all parties, § 339.750), designated agent (§ 339.820), and transaction broker (§ 339.755, the default when there is no written agency agreement). The forms also reflect RSMo § 339.150 (compensation payable only to and through licensed brokers), § 339.105 (escrow accounts), the Missouri Real Estate Commission's rules at 20 CSR 2250 (definite expiration dates, no automatic renewal, advertising and record retention), the statute of frauds (RSMo § 432.010), and Missouri's Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (RSMo Chapter 432). Because Missouri has no mandatory statutory seller disclosure form, the seller disclosure template is built on Missouri's common-law fraud and latent-defect principles plus the methamphetamine-production disclosure statute (RSMo § 442.606) and the psychologically-impacted-property safe harbor (RSMo § 442.600), with the federal lead-based paint rules and RSMo Chapter 701 lead program addressed separately.