Dual agency in PA, NJ and DE, from the file's point of view.

The short version

Dual agency is state law, not a county rule

We see this searched county by county, and it is worth saying plainly: there is no Bucks County dual agency rule, no Middlesex County dual agency rule, and no county anywhere in these three states that sets its own agency law. Agency is set by statute and by the state real estate commission. In Pennsylvania that is the Real Estate Licensing and Registration Act and 49 Pa. Code Chapter 35. In New Jersey it is P.L. 2024 c.32 and N.J.A.C. 11:5-6.9. In Delaware it is Title 24 Chapter 29 and the Commission's rules.

What genuinely does change county by county is everything after the agency question: which office records the deed, how the transfer tax splits, and which municipal certificate has to be ordered before settlement. Those sit on our county fee reference and the individual county pages.

Pennsylvania

The consent rule

A licensee may act as a dual agent only with the written consent of both parties to the transaction, and the consent must include a statement of the terms of compensation. That is RELRA section 606.4, codified at 63 P.S. section 455.606d(a). One housekeeping note, because it matters if you are checking this yourself: dual agency is often miscited to 63 P.S. 455.606a or 455.606b. Those are the duties of a licensee generally and the duties of a seller's agent. Dual agency is 455.606d, designated agency is 455.606e, and the transaction licensee is 455.606f.

Where the paperwork actually lives

Pennsylvania does not prescribe a standalone dual agency consent form. What the statute and the regulations do specify is where the disclosure and the consent have to appear, across three different documents:

• The written agreement between the broker and the seller or landlord must contain a disclosure of any potential for the broker to act as a dual agent (49 Pa. Code section 35.331(a)(7); RELRA section 608.1(4)).
• The written agreement between the broker and the buyer or tenant must contain the same disclosure (49 Pa. Code section 35.331(a)(8); RELRA section 608.1(5)).
• The agreement of sale must contain a statement identifying the capacity in which the broker, or a licensee employed by the broker, is involved in the transaction, and whether services have been provided to another party in the transaction (49 Pa. Code section 35.333(a)(7); RELRA section 608.2(1)).

A dual agent must take no action adverse or detrimental to either party, must continue good-faith efforts for both sides unless otherwise agreed in writing, and owes confidentiality with one carve-out: a licensee is still required to disclose known material defects about the property (49 Pa. Code section 35.314(b)).

The Consumer Notice, and the timing people get wrong

The Consumer Notice goes to the consumer at the initial interview, meaning the first substantive discussion about the consumer's real estate needs (49 Pa. Code sections 35.201 and 35.336(a)). If that first interview is in person, the written notice is provided then. If it is not in person, the licensee gives the Oral Disclosure at the initial interview and then delivers the written Consumer Notice no later than the earlier of the first in-person meeting or the first time anyone working with the licensee shows the consumer a property (49 Pa. Code section 35.284(a)(2)). The Notice itself states that a licensee must have the written consent of both parties before acting as a dual agent, and that a business relationship is not presumed.

Retention is the part that gets lost. A refusal to sign is not a dead end: the refusal is noted on the acknowledgment and the acknowledgment is kept for six months (49 Pa. Code sections 35.284(d) and 35.336(b)). Records pertaining to an actual transaction are kept at least three years following consummation (49 Pa. Code section 35.286(a)).

Designated agency

A broker may, with the written consent of the principal, designate one or more licensees to act exclusively for the seller and one or more to act exclusively for the buyer in the same transaction. The broker is then a dual agent, and licensees in the office who were not designated have no agency relationship with either party (49 Pa. Code section 35.315(a) and (d); RELRA section 606.5). If the designation happens after the agency agreement is already signed, the broker has to go back and obtain the principal's written consent to the newly designated licensee and, where applicable, the principal's agreement to renounce any previous relationship with the broker's other licensees (49 Pa. Code section 35.315(b)). A designated agent must also disclose to their principal, before writing or presenting an offer, that the other party is represented by a designated agent of the same broker, and confirm that the broker is a dual agent.

The transaction licensee route

Pennsylvania has a category the other two states do not: the transaction licensee, a licensee who provides communication or document preparation services without being an agent or advocate of the consumer (63 P.S. section 455.201, with the regulatory definition at 49 Pa. Code section 35.201 and the duties at section 35.316). A transaction licensee cooperating with the listing broker is not required to obtain a written agreement from the seller (49 Pa. Code section 35.281(b)(2)). But a transaction licensee who provides services to the buyer while being paid by the seller or listing broker must provide, and have signed, a written disclosure statement describing the nature of the services, before performing any services, and if the buyer refuses to sign, the refusal is noted on the statement and it is retained for six months (RELRA section 606.1(b)(4); 49 Pa. Code sections 35.281(b)(3) and 35.286(a)(4)).

New Jersey

What changed on August 1, 2024

P.L. 2024, c.32 was approved July 10, 2024 and took effect August 1, 2024. It codified the four business relationships New Jersey already recognised and added a fifth, designated agency. It also made the Brokerage Services Agreement the centre of the file. The Department of Banking and Insurance issued implementation guidance the same day in Bulletin 24-11.

A practical consequence that catches people: the Consumer Information Statement text codified at N.J.A.C. 11:5-6.9(h) is superseded. The Commission issued a revised CIS as Appendix A to Bulletin 24-11 and directed that licensees must use it in place of the codified text until conforming regulations are promulgated. As of this writing the conforming rulemaking has not reached 11:5-6.9, so the bulletin version is still the one to use. If your office template CIS lists four relationships rather than five, it is the old one.

Consent to dual agency

A brokerage firm may act as a disclosed dual agent only with the informed consent of both parties, set out in the brokerage services agreements signed by the buyer and the seller in a residential transaction, or otherwise in writing in a commercial one (P.L. 2024, c.32, section 7.a). The regulation is more specific about the mechanics: informed consent is not acquired through distribution of the Consumer Information Statement alone, and at minimum the licensee must secure the party's signature on a separate writing confirming informed consent to the licensee acting as a disclosed dual agent, which may be part of or attached to a brokerage agreement (N.J.A.C. 11:5-6.9(b)).

The Act adds the content requirement: consent, if granted, goes in the brokerage services agreement or another document requiring separate initialling or signature, and must include an acknowledgment from the party that a disclosed dual agent will not advocate terms favourable to one principal to the detriment of the other (P.L. 2024, c.32, section 3.b(2)(d) on the buyer side and section 5.b(2)(d) on the seller side).

Designated agency, which is genuinely new

Under designated agency, the firm designates one licensee to represent the buyer and another to represent the seller. Those two are not dual agents and owe fiduciary duties solely to their own principals (P.L. 2024, c.32, section 8.a(1)). The firm itself, other than those designated licensees, acts as a disclosed dual agent, which is how the Department of Banking and Insurance describes it in Bulletin 24-11 and which follows from sections 3.a(2) and 3.b(2)(e) rather than from section 8. For the relationship to take effect the firm must enter into a written designated agency agreement, which may be incorporated into the brokerage services agreement, including the informed written consent of each party (section 8.a(2)).

The Agency Disclosure paragraph

No later than when the principal signs the Brokerage Services Agreement, the firm must disclose in writing whether it is acting as the buyer's agent, the seller's agent, a disclosed dual agent, a designated agent, or a transaction broker, and that disclosure has to sit in a separate paragraph titled Agency Disclosure in the agreement, or in a separate writing with that title, signed by the principal (P.L. 2024, c.32, section 2.i(1)). Acknowledged CIS copies on transactions that reach a fully executed contract of sale or a consummated rental are kept as business records for six years (N.J.A.C. 11:5-6.9(g)1i).

Delaware

The presumption runs the other way

For property marketed for sale as a 1-to-4 family residence, or a single lot of land intended for one, a licensee working for both buyer and seller is presumed to be a statutory agent representing both parties as a dual agent (24 Del. C. section 2933(c)(1)c). That presumption may be rebutted by the consumer signing a Consumer Information Statement establishing a different agency relationship (section 2933(c)(3)). The Commission's own CIS form puts it bluntly: under Delaware law it is presumed that you consent to dual agency unless you fill out this form saying you do not want dual agency.

The file consequence is different from the other two states. In Pennsylvania and New Jersey the disclosure form is evidence that a disclosure happened. In Delaware the CIS is the instrument that establishes or rebuts the relationship, so the date it is signed is a substantive fact about the transaction, not a compliance checkbox.

Statutory agency versus common law agency

Delaware presumes every licensee is a statutory agent, an independent contractor rather than a fiduciary, unless specifically hired as a common law agent by a written brokerage agreement (24 Del. C. sections 2902(a)(25) and 2936(a)). There is a hard limit on the common law route for residential work: a licensee may not act as a common law agent on a 1-to-4 family property unless that relationship is established in writing and the broker's policy is to represent only the seller or only the buyer as a single agent in every transaction, never as a dual agent (24 Del. C. section 2932(c)(4)).

CIS timing, and the notice trap

The CIS must be delivered no later than the earlier of the first scheduled appointment, the first showing of a property, or making an offer, unless the consumer already received one from another licensee. It must be signed before the consumer signs an agreement of sale, a listing agreement, or any other brokerage agreement (24 Del. C. section 2938(b)). A listing licensee who knows the buyer is working with another licensee does not have to give that buyer a CIS, and vice versa.

The trap sits in section 2936(g), and it is a paperwork trap rather than an agency one. Unless the agreement of sale or lease says otherwise, notice given only to a designated licensee is effective notice to that licensee's client. But notice to the broker is not notice to the designated licensee or the client, and notice only to the designated licensee is not notice to the broker or the rest of the brokerage. On a Delaware file, who received a notice is a question with a legal answer, and the answer depends on which person it went to.

There is also a confirmation requirement that applies whatever the relationship: a written confirmation of the agency relationship must be included in the agreement for the transaction, whether the relationship is statutory or common law (24 Del. Admin. Code 2900, section 10.3).

What this means on a live file

Coordinating a dual agency file is not the same work as coordinating a one-sided one, and the difference is mostly documentary. What we check, by state:

• Pennsylvania. Dual agency disclosure present in both the listing contract and the buyer agency contract. Written consent from both parties, with the compensation terms stated. Capacity statement present in the agreement of sale. Consumer Notice acknowledgment on file, including a noted refusal if there was one. If designation happened after the agreement was signed, the later written consent is in the file too.
• New Jersey. Brokerage Services Agreement with both sides. Agency Disclosure as its own titled paragraph. Dual agency consent on a separately initialled or signed writing, not just the CIS. The 2024 version of the CIS, acknowledged. If designated agency applies, the written designated agency agreement.
• Delaware. CIS signed, and signed before any brokerage agreement or agreement of sale, since that is what sets the relationship. Agency confirmation in the agreement itself. On designated agency, a clear record of who notice actually went to.

We price dual agency separately because of this. In Pennsylvania a dual agency transaction is $800 against $400 for standard contract to close, and transaction licensee service is $550. The full card is on the pricing page.

Sources

Every legal statement on this page traces to a statute, an administrative code section, or a state real estate commission publication, checked on September 14, 2026. This is a description of what those sources say about documentation, written for coordinators and agents. It is not legal advice, and Precision Leverage Solutions is not a law firm. Agency questions on a specific transaction belong with your broker or your attorney.

• Pennsylvania Real Estate Licensing and Registration Act (RELRA), 63 P.S. 455.101 et seq.
• 49 Pa. Code Chapter 35, State Real Estate Commission regulations
• New Jersey P.L. 2024, c.32, real estate consumer rights act
• New Jersey DOBI Bulletin No. 24-11, implementation guidance
• New Jersey revised Consumer Information Statement, Appendix A to Bulletin 24-11
• N.J.A.C. 11:5-6.9, business relationships and agency disclosure
• Delaware Code Title 24, Chapter 29, Subchapter II (agency)
• Delaware Code Title 24, Chapter 29, Subchapter I (definitions)
• 24 Del. Admin. Code 2900, Real Estate Commission rules
• Delaware Real Estate Commission, Consumer Information Statement for 1-4 family residential