Florida Brokerage Relationships, Disclosures, and Consent to Transition – TSRE Support Center

A written buyer agreement describes services and contractual terms; it does not by itself establish single agency. Identify the Florida brokerage relationship, its duties, and the applicable disclosure timing.

Florida law: brokerage relationships and duties

Under Florida Statutes section 475.278, transaction brokerage is presumed unless single agency or no brokerage relationship is established in writing.

Transaction broker: provides limited representation, with limited confidentiality, and does not act as a fiduciary or single agent.
Single agent: owes fiduciary duties, including loyalty, confidentiality, obedience, and full disclosure.
No brokerage relationship: still carries statutory duties, including honesty and fair dealing, accounting for funds, and disclosure of specified material residential-property facts.

Florida prohibits disclosed and undisclosed dual agency. A written buyer agreement does not remove that prohibition. A transaction broker's permitted work with both sides is different from representing both as a fiduciary.

Worked example

A buyer and brokerage sign an agreement describing services, a defined term, negotiated compensation, and a transaction-broker relationship. The signature does not convert that relationship into single agency. To answer a practice question, identify the agreed relationship and apply its duties.

Now change the question: it asks when an MLS participant working with the buyer needs the agreement before a tour. That asks about the written-agreement rule, not whether loyalty is a transaction-broker duty.

Consent to transition: what changes, and when?

A single agent must obtain the principal’s prior written consent before changing to transaction brokerage. Verbal agreement or silence is not a substitute. The statutory disclosure is titled Consent to Transition to Transaction Broker. It explains the change to limited representation and requires the principal to initial or sign the consent.

Memory cue: single agency → written consent first → transaction brokerage. A shortened label in a matching exercise is only a label; actual practice requires the prescribed disclosure and its contents.

Residential versus commercial disclosure questions

Section 475.278(5) applies its disclosure requirements to residential sales: improved residential property with four or fewer units, unimproved property intended for four or fewer residential units, and agricultural property of ten acres or fewer. Nonresidential transactions, such as a shopping-center sale, are excluded from these particular disclosure requirements.

That exclusion does not mean commercial licensees have no duties. Other legal, contractual, and brokerage requirements can still apply. Rentals are generally excluded, with a stated exception involving an option to purchase property improved with four or fewer residential units. Consult the full subsection for other limitations and exceptions.

Keep the timing rules separate

Disclosure / consent	Required timing when the disclosure rules apply
Single-agent notice	before or when entering the representation/listing agreement, or before showing property, whichever occurs first.
No-brokerage-relationship notice	before showing property.
Consent to transition	before changing an existing single-agent relationship to transaction brokerage.

Source: Florida Statutes section 475.278(3)–(5). The timing examples assume the disclosure requirements apply.

Practice: disclosures and transition

A single agent receives only verbal permission to become a transaction broker. Is that enough?
A question asks whether the residential disclosure requirements in section 475.278(5) apply to a shopping-center sale. What distinction controls?
A licensee will act with no brokerage relationship in a covered residential transaction. Can the required notice wait until after the showing?

Answers and explanations

No. Obtain the principal’s written consent before the transition.
Residential versus nonresidential. The shopping-center transaction is outside those particular disclosure requirements; other duties still apply.
No. The notice must precede the showing.

Florida law and agency guidance checked October 18, 2026. These are original study examples; use current forms and supervising-broker guidance for actual transactions.