What does BRRETA require of the landlord's broker?
- ANothing, because tenants are customers and not clients
- BDisclosure only if the lease is longer than one year
- CDisclosure only if the landlord agrees
- DDisclosure to the prospective tenant of the actually known adverse physical condition
Pick an answer before you read on.
Answer: D
Disclosure to the prospective tenant of the actually known adverse physical condition. Section 10-6A-6 requires a landlord's broker to timely disclose to prospective tenants with whom it is working adverse material facts about the property's physical condition that it actually knows and that a reasonably diligent inspection would not reveal. The repair estimate establishes actual knowledge; mold behind a wall supplies the hidden physical condition. The duty also reaches specified hidden adverse physical conditions in the neighborhood within one mile.
Why each choice is right or wrong
A. Nothing, because tenants are customers and not clients
The landlord's broker owes specified disclosures to prospective tenants even without representing them. Being a customer does not remove those protections.
B. Disclosure only if the lease is longer than one year
Section 10-6A-6 does not limit this disclosure duty to leases longer than a year. The known adverse physical condition is what matters here.
C. Disclosure only if the landlord agrees
The landlord cannot veto a disclosure the statute requires. A request for confidentiality would yield to that duty.
D. Disclosure to the prospective tenant of the actually known adverse physical conditionCorrect answer
The repair estimate gives the broker actual knowledge of hidden mold. Section 10-6A-6 requires timely disclosure of the covered adverse physical condition to prospective tenants.
The trap
The landlord is the client, but the statute gives the tenant this protection directly. Customer status does not erase it.
The Rule
A landlord's broker timely discloses known adverse physical conditions that a reasonably diligent inspection would not reveal.
What would change the answer
- If the landlord asks the broker to keep the mold confidential, the request does not override a disclosure the statute requires.
- A tenant's broker owes the mirror duty to landlords about the tenant's finances. See the related question.
Where the rule comes from
- O.C.G.A. § 10-6A-6, Duties of broker engaged by landlord. A landlord's broker must perform the engagement, promote the landlord's interests (seeking a tenant, timely presenting all offers to and from the landlord, disclosing known adverse material facts, advising expert help, and accounting for money), use ordinary skill and care, obey the law, keep requested confidences, and disclose to prospective tenants actually known adverse physical conditions of the property and the neighborhood within one mile.
This is an original teaching question written from the statute. It is not a PSI exam item, and it is not copied or reconstructed from one. On the exam, BRRETA sits inside the Georgia agency and listing content. The BRRETA guide covers the client and customer table and the dual and designated agency rules in one place.