Fiduciary Duty in Ontario Real Estate: What Your Agent Legally Owes You

By Jatin Dua · Broker of Record, RE/MAX Quantum Realty · Updated September 10, 2026 · 12 min read — the duties an Ontario agent owes a client, where they come from, what changes under multiple representation, and what you are actually entitled to demand.

What is a fiduciary duty, in plain terms?

A fiduciary is somebody who is trusted to act for another person’s benefit in circumstances where that other person cannot easily supervise them. Lawyers, trustees, directors and agents are the classic examples. The law responds to that vulnerability by imposing a standard far stricter than ordinary contract: the fiduciary must put the beneficiary’s interests ahead of their own, must not profit secretly, and must not place themselves in a position where their interest conflicts with their duty without informed consent.

In real estate that translates into something concrete. Your agent is negotiating on your behalf, holds your private financial information, sees the other side’s reactions, and gets paid on the outcome. The fiduciary standard exists precisely because that combination is ripe for abuse.

Ontario stacks two systems on top of each other. The common law of agency supplies the fiduciary duties. TRESA and its regulations supply statutory duties enforced by the Real Estate Council of Ontario. They overlap heavily, but they are not the same thing: a breach of the Code of Ethics is a regulatory matter, while a breach of fiduciary duty is a civil claim.

The classic fiduciary duties, and what each one means on a Tuesday

Where the statute says it

The Code of Ethics under TRESA is O. Reg. 365/22, in its current form since 1 December 2023. Several sections map directly onto the fiduciary concepts, and they are short enough to be worth knowing.

• Section 1 — integrity. A registrant shall act with courtesy, honesty, good faith and integrity in relation to every person the registrant deals with. Note the scope: every person, not just clients.
• Section 5 — representations. A registrant shall make best efforts to ensure representations are accurate and not misleading, and shall not be a party to misrepresentation.
• Section 8 — best interests. A registrant that represents a client shall promote and protect the best interests of the registrant’s clients. This is the statutory core of loyalty, and the words “that represents a client” do all the limiting work.
• Section 9 — conscientious and competent service. Conscientious, courteous and responsive service to clients, with reasonable knowledge, skill, judgment and competence.
• Section 10 — self-represented parties. A registrant shall not provide services, opinions or advice to a self-represented party, or encourage them to rely on the registrant’s knowledge, skill or judgment.
• Section 11 — refer out. Where the registrant cannot competently provide a service, or is not legally authorized to, they must advise the person to obtain it elsewhere — and must not discourage them from seeking it.
• Section 12 — confidentiality. Except as authorized or required by law, a registrant shall not disclose confidential information of a client to a third party without the client’s written consent.
• Section 13 — conflicts of interest. A registrant must not provide or continue services where their interests conflict or may conflict with the client’s unless they have disclosed it, advised the client to get independent professional advice, taken reasonable steps to confirm the client understands, and obtained written consent.
• Section 14 — other people’s clients. If a registrant knows or ought to know a person is another registrant’s client, they must communicate through that registrant unless it is consented to in writing.

Section 13 is the most under-read provision in the whole regulation. It is a four-step test, and consent alone does not satisfy it. Disclosure, a referral to independent advice, confirmed understanding, and written consent — all four, in that order.

What confidentiality actually covers

Buyers and sellers routinely assume confidentiality means “my agent will not gossip.” It is far more specific than that, and the items it protects are exactly the ones that determine price.

• Your ceiling and your floor. That you would have gone to $1.15 million. That you would have taken $980,000 on a fast close.
• Your motivation. A job transfer, a separation, an estate, a firm purchase you have to close, a tenant you need out.
• Your financial position. Your pre-approval amount, your down payment source, whether your purchase depends on selling.
• Your timeline. That you must be out by the end of October.
• Your other negotiations. That you were outbid twice last month and are getting tired.

This survives the agreement. An agent who represented you two years ago cannot use what they learned then against you now. And it is not waivable by implication — section 12 requires written consent before your confidential information goes to a third party.

The practical test: if the other side’s agent could learn something from your agent that would let them extract a better price from you, that thing is confidential, and it does not travel.

Multiple representation: where the duty is cut down

The moment one brokerage represents both the buyer and the seller in the same trade, full loyalty to both becomes logically impossible. Ontario’s answer is not to pretend otherwise; it is to require disclosure and written consent, and then to shrink what the agent may do.

Under O. Reg. 567/05 section 22, a brokerage shall not represent more than one client in the same trade unless it discloses the prescribed information to each client and prospective client, and each of them then consents in writing. The prescribed information includes the fact of the proposal, and — this is the important item — the differences between the duties the brokerage would have if it represented only one client and the duties it would have representing more than one.

What actually changes:

• Your agent can no longer tell either side what the other would accept.
• Your agent can no longer advise you on price the way they otherwise would.
• Your agent must remain even-handed, which means the advocacy you hired is suspended for that transaction.

You are entitled to say no. Consent to multiple representation is a choice, not a formality, and refusing it does not make you difficult.

Designated representation: the structure most buyers have never had explained

TRESA introduced designated representation, under which the brokerage designates a specific salesperson or broker to represent you, and the fiduciary relationship runs to that individual rather than to the whole brokerage. It is why a large office can have two of its agents on opposite sides of a deal without the transaction collapsing into multiple representation.

The protection that makes it work is O. Reg. 567/05 section 22.0.5: every designated representative must protect the confidential information of every client they represent, including by not disclosing it to any other broker or salesperson employed by the same brokerage, unless the client authorizes it or the law requires it.

Read that again, because it is the operative sentence. Under designated representation your information is walled off from your own agent’s colleagues — and from the broker of record, absent authorization or legal requirement. That is a genuinely different arrangement from the old brokerage-wide model, and it is why the question “is this brokerage representation or designated representation?” belongs in your first conversation, not your last.

Note the limit: if the same designated representative is asked to represent both sides of the same trade, section 22.0.1 applies and you are back in multiple representation, with the same disclosure-and-written-consent requirement and the same shrunken duties.

Material facts: the duty that most often ends up in court

Under O. Reg. 567/05 section 22.1, a broker or salesperson representing a client in an acquisition or disposition shall take reasonable steps to determine the material facts, disclose them to the client as soon as possible after determining them, and advise the client to consider whether those facts affect their decision. The agent must also make best efforts to obtain a written acknowledgement that this was done.

Two things follow that buyers rarely realise.

First, this is an active duty, not a passive one. “Nobody told me” is not a defence for your own agent. Reasonable steps to determine means looking — at the listing history, at the status certificate, at the survey, at whatever the property discloses to a competent professional.

Second, the duty runs to clients. A self-represented buyer is owed honesty and the statutory disclosures, but not this. It is one of the sharpest practical differences between the two statuses and one of the clearest arguments for having your own representation.

Competing offers: what your agent may and may not tell the other side

Since 1 December 2023 Ontario permits open bidding at the seller’s election. Under O. Reg. 567/05 section 22.7, where there are competing written offers the brokerage shall communicate the number of competing offers to every person making one, and if the seller directs, shall share the substance of those offers with every person making one. The seller may direct that only parts be shared, and nothing shared may include personal information or anything that would identify the offering party.

So: the number is mandatory, the contents are optional and controlled by the seller, and identity is always protected. If you are a buyer being told “there are three offers” and nothing else, that is the law working normally. If you are a seller, whether to open your offers is a strategic decision your agent should be walking you through, with reasons, not a box to tick.

What to do if you think a duty was breached

There are three distinct avenues and they do different things.

• The brokerage. Complain in writing to the broker of record. Brokerages have supervisory obligations and a real incentive to resolve problems internally.
• RECO. The Real Estate Council of Ontario administers TRESA and the Code of Ethics, and can discipline registrants. Note that RECO’s process addresses conduct — it is not a route to compensation for your loss.
• A lawyer. A breach of fiduciary duty is a civil claim. If you have suffered a financial loss, this is the only avenue that recovers it. Limitation periods apply, and they are shorter than people expect.

Do all of your record-keeping now rather than later: keep the representation agreement, the disclosure forms, the offers, and the emails and texts. Duty cases turn on what was said and when.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• O. Reg. 365/22: Code of Ethics, under the Trust in Real Estate Services Act, 2002 — sections 1, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14, consolidation period beginning 1 December 2023. Accessed 10 September 2026.
• O. Reg. 567/05: General, under the Trust in Real Estate Services Act, 2002 — ss. 13, 13.1 (self-represented parties), 22 and 22.0.1 (multiple representation), 22.0.5 (duty of designated representative), 22.1 (material facts) and 22.7 (competing offers). Accessed 10 September 2026.
• Real Estate Council of Ontario — the regulator administering TRESA, the Code of Ethics and the complaints process. Accessed 10 September 2026.
• Trust in Real Estate Services Act, 2002 — the governing statute. Accessed 10 September 2026.

Related reading

• Who does your real estate agent actually work for under TRESA?
• Designated representation vs multiple representation in Ontario
• The risks of multiple representation
• Competing offers and open offer disclosure in Ontario
• How to cancel a real estate agreement with a brokerage