Record retention isn’t just about contracts.
Under Oregon law, managing principal brokers must keep “complete and adequate records” of professional real estate activity — including documents created within the scope of the agency relationship. But what does that actually include?
Here’s what you need to know.
What the Law Says
ORS 696.280(1) requires a managing principal broker maintain “complete and adequate records” of all professional real estate activity conducted by or through them.
OAR 863-015-0250 [as of OREA’s 2025 updates to OAR 863] provides further guidance on what that means by clarifying that “[c]omplete and adequate records of professional real estate activity include complete, legible, and permanent copies of all documents required by law or voluntarily generated during a real estate transaction,” including but not limited to “a copy of any other document within the scope of the agency relationship provided to or received by a client through a real estate broker or principal broker during the term of the agency relationship.”
So what does “within the scope of the agency relationship” mean?
What This Means in Practice
The agency relationship is the legal arrangement between the agent and the client, where the agent is a fiduciary of the client and the client is the principal authorizing the agent to act on client’s behalf. An agent is authorized to do all the things expressed in the agency contract, and also inherently authorized to do things as needed to support or effectuate the accomplishment of the agency contract’s central goal.
Hence, if an agent requires a buyer to sign a document and the buyer doesn’t have digital access, agent can physically mail the document to that buyer even if the agency contract does not specifically authorize the agent to use the mail service.
Inherent agency is equally a form of agency.
This means, in abstract, that most actions and activities of an agent done in furtherance of the client’s objective are invested with authority of the client and are therefore part of the “scope of the agency relationship.”
Documents in the context of ORS 696.280 and OAR 863-015-0250 does not just mean “legal contracts” but rather “any written record.” For all intents and purposes, this means all of your emails with the client [related to the transaction or the agency representation, but likely not the “happy new years” blast emails], all your text messages related to the client’s transaction, all of those communications that are in the form of writing, would be documents created in the course of the agency relationship within the scope of the agency relationship and therefore would need to be kept by the managing principal broker to stay in compliance with ORS 696.280.
Key Takeaway
“Complete and adequate records” means more than signed contracts. If it’s a written communication related to a client’s transaction or representation, your managing principal broker should be retaining it.
