The Final Agency Acknowledgement is technically a creation of administrative rule. The document is essentially provided in OAR 863-015-0200(12) because ORS 696.845 mandates that “[w]hen signing an offer to purchase, each buyer shall acknowledge the existing agency relationships, if any,” and “[w]hen a seller accepts or rejects an offer to purchase in writing, each seller shall acknowledge the existing agency relationships, if any.”
In essence, law requires that the Buyer offer have some sort of statement about who represents who, and requires the seller to “acknowledge” that same statement when they accept or reject the offer. The seller’s signature expressly does not constitute acceptance of the offer, but rather acceptance that the acknowledgement was received. In some instances, the Final Agency Acknowledgement is used as evidence of the agency relationship in subsequent court cases [see Neel v. Lee, 316 Or. App. 159 (2021); Halvorson v. Real Estate Agency, 290 Or. App. 756 (2018).
The statute further makes it more than just a Buyer or Seller obligation, as ORS 696.845 states, “[a]n agent to the real property transaction shall obtain the signatures of the buyers and the sellers to the acknowledgement.” Interestingly, the law imposes no penalty under ORS 696.990 or ORS 696.995 on a Buyer or Seller who fails to complete the final agency acknowledgement [neither statute allows it to be applied to a violation of ORS 696.845]. Nonetheless, failure to get the final agency acknowledgement signed is a potential ground for discipline against the agent under ORS 696.301(3) [ORS 696.301(3) specifically allows a penalty when an agent disregards or violates “696.800 to 696.870”]. In effect, it’s a legal obligation of the Seller, Buyer, and Agent, but only the Agent can be punished for failing to meet that obligation.