Section 24.12. Confidentiality of offers.

 

(1)  Except as provided in sub. (2) , a licensee acting as a principal or an agent in a real estate or business opportunity transaction shall not disclose any of the terms of one prospective buyer's offer to purchase, exchange agreement or option contract proposal to any other prospective buyer or to any person with the intent that this information be disclosed to any other prospective buyer. Licensees shall encourage all prospective buyers to submit their best offers. A licensee may, but is not required to, disclose information known by the licensee regarding the existence of other offers on the property, the fact that a seller has accepted an offer, that the offer is subject to contingencies and that the offer is subject to a clause requiring removal of certain contingencies upon the occurrence of an event such as receipt, acceptance or conditional acceptance of another offer.

(2)  As used in this subsection, "right of first refusal" means the right of a person to have the first opportunity to purchase or lease real property. "Right of first refusal" does not mean a so-called "bump clause" which is a contingency provision in a purchase agreement that requires the prospective buyer to remove certain contingencies in the buyer's purchase agreement or to relinquish the buyer's primary status to a secondary offer. If a licensee is providing brokerage services in a transaction and the licensee has knowledge that the property is subject to a right of first refusal, the licensee shall disclose the right of first refusal, in writing and in a timely manner, to all persons seeking to acquire an interest subject to the right of first refusal. After disclosure of the right of first refusal to a party seeking to acquire an interest in the property, the licensee may deliver a copy of that party's subsequent offer to purchase, exchange agreement, option contract or lease proposal to the party holding the right of first refusal.

History: Cr. Register, February, 1980, No. 290 , eff. 3-1-80; am. Register, March, 1981, No. 303 , eff. 4-1-81; renum. from REB 15.12, Register, February, 1983, No. 326 , eff. 3-1-83; am. Register, July, 1993, No. 451 , eff. 8-1-93; renum. RL 24.12 to be (1), cr. (2), Register, January, 2001, No. 541 , eff. 2-1-01.