Can a real estate agent disclose my offer amount to other buyers?

The short answer is NO!

In Western Australia where an offer is made on a property for sale by Private Treaty an Agent has a duty to maintain the confidentiality of both the seller and buyer in any offers which may have been forthcoming. This isn’t just limited to the offer amount – it also covers conditions or other details which may be present in your offer.

This is to ensure that you not only maintain your Privacy but are also negotiating from a fair position preventing any form of manipulation of the buying process.

An Agent must disclose the existence of other offers and let you know that you should not rely on a counter offer being made as the seller is free to accept any offer at any time.

Although not a law, you can ask that this disclosure be made in writing on the offer document itself to give you some evidence that the Agent is telling the truth.

This is different to the Auction Process where the terms of the sale are laid out in advance and buyers openly compete against each other.

If you feel you have been mislead or that the Agent may have disclosed the details of your offer to other buyers (if they tell you about someone else’s offer it’s a fair bet they have disclosed yours) then you can lodge a complaint with consumerprotection.wa.gov.au

Australian Consumer Law Sections 18, 29 and 30.

Note that Laws can differ from state to state and this article is provided as general information only and should not be taken as legal advice.

David Milkovits

Licensed Real Estate Agent – Maxpro Real Estate

Over 2,800 homes sold.