Illinois agency exam concept
What duties do agents owe clients and customers?
A client receives representation: the agent promotes the client's lawful interests and protects confidential information. A customer is not represented by that licensee, but Illinois law still requires honest treatment and specified disclosures. Start by asking whose agent this is, then apply the duty and knowledge standard in the question.
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First identify the client and the licensee
A customer is a consumer whom that licensee does not represent under Section 1-10. A buyer represented by a buyer's agent can still be a customer of the seller's agent. Client and customer describe a relationship, not a permanent label attached to a buyer or seller.
For Illinois questions, do not decide that someone is a customer merely because a signature is missing. Sections 15-10 and 15-50 treat a licensee as the designated agent of the consumer the licensee is working with unless a written agreement provides a different relationship, and require the brokerage terms in writing. Section 15-50(a-5) also preserves possible enforcement of an oral agreement. Use the actual representation facts; missing paperwork is not a shortcut to no duties.
Section 15-35(c) requires written notice to a customer that the licensee is not the customer's agent, early enough to prevent confidential disclosures and no later than offer preparation. Do not wait for the customer to reveal a maximum price before clarifying the relationship.
If the scenario changes to representation of both sides, use the designated and dual-agency comparison. This page compares a represented client with a customer, rather than treating dual agency as ordinary single-party advocacy.
How do Illinois client and customer duties compare?
| Issue | Represented client | Customer of this licensee |
|---|---|---|
| Whose interests? | Promote the client's best interests within the law and agreement | No client advocacy from this licensee |
| Instructions | Follow specific directions that do not conflict with applicable law | Does not direct this licensee as a client |
| Information | Disclose actually known material transaction facts unless confidential, subject to the statutory exclusions | Treat honestly; do not negligently or knowingly give false information, subject to the client-supplied-information exception |
| Property condition | Apply the client's material-fact rule | Seller's licensee must timely disclose actually known latent material adverse physical facts a reasonably diligent buyer inspection would not discover |
| Confidentiality | Protect the client's statutory confidential information | Do not assume the other party's agent keeps your bargaining limit for your benefit |
| Skill, care and accounting | Exercise reasonable skill and care; timely account for money and property in which the client has, may have or should have had an interest | Customer status does not authorize misrepresentation or unlawful handling of transaction funds |
Section 15-15 also requires performance of the brokerage agreement and compliance with applicable law, including fair housing and civil-rights law. A client's instruction cannot authorize discrimination, a false statement or unlawful concealment.
Customer does not mean unrepresented by everyone. It means unrepresented by this licensee. Before sharing a private bargaining limit, establish who represents you.
Section 15-25 does not simply repeat every client duty for customers. In particular, do not present the client's reasonable-skill-and-care clause as the wording of Section 15-25. Read that section's honesty, false-information and physical-condition provisions together, including its stated exception.
When does disclosure take priority over confidentiality?
Illinois confidential information includes a client's protected negotiating position and qualifying information made confidential by written instruction. Section 1-10 excludes material information about the property's physical condition. It also recognizes client permission, legally required disclosure and information made public by a source other than the licensee.
Private price limit or concealed leak?
A seller privately tells the listing agent the lowest price the seller would accept. Without permission or another applicable exception, the agent should not give that number to a buyer customer. Honesty does not require answering every bargaining question with the client's private information.
Now change the fact: the agent actually knows that a recurring roof leak is hidden behind new ceiling panels and a reasonably diligent buyer inspection would not reveal it. That is a latent material adverse physical fact under Section 15-25. The seller cannot turn it into confidential strategy by saying, “Keep this between us.”
For example, a seller's private reason for moving and an actually known concealed structural problem raise different duties. Protect the qualifying private reason; evaluate the physical fact under the disclosure rule.
Keep the conditions attached: seller's licensee, prospective buyer customer, actual knowledge, material adverse physical condition and a fact not discoverable by reasonably diligent inspection. That is more precise than “disclose every defect to everyone.” Do not turn the actual-knowledge standard into a guarantee that an agent has discovered every hidden condition.
Rule 1450.800 requires reasonable steps against unauthorized disclosure. Use the material-facts guide for the separate condition analysis, rather than confusing a licensee's duty with the seller's own disclosure obligations.
Why does the source of false information matter?
| Information passed along | Section | Exception does not protect the licensee when... |
|---|---|---|
| Customer's information given to a client | 15-15(d) | The licensee knew or should have known it was false |
| Client's information given to a customer | 15-25 | The licensee actually knew it was false |
These are specific statutory rules for information received from the named source, not permission to invent facts. Section 15-25 first prohibits negligent or knowing false information, then provides its client-supplied-information exception. Section 15-15(e) also preserves common-law duties concerning negligent or fraudulent material misrepresentation.
For an exam question, trace the statement from its source to its recipient. Do not swap “actual knowledge” and “knew or should have known.” An unsupported claim the broker invented does not become client-supplied information merely because the broker represents the seller.
Try two original agency questions
These are original study questions, not released or recalled PSI items. Each asks about the stated Illinois rule.
1. The buyer asks for the seller's minimum
Mara represents the seller only. A buyer customer asks what minimum price the seller privately authorized Mara to seek. The seller has not permitted disclosure, no law requires it and the information is not public. What should Mara do?
- Reveal it because customer honesty requires every question to be answered
- Protect the private limit and let the buyer choose an offer without misleading the buyer
- Say the seller will never negotiate, even though that is false
- Recommend a buyer-first bargaining strategy against the seller
B is best. A confuses honesty with disclosure of protected strategy. B protects the client without deception. C is a lie. D gives the other party strategic advocacy against the client.
Change the fact: the seller expressly permits Mara to disclose that limit. The confidentiality restriction no longer bars that authorized disclosure. It still does not authorize a false claim or create buyer representation.
2. Which knowledge standard applies?
A question asks only about Section 15-15(d). A licensee gives the client false information received from a customer. Which finding defeats that subsection's protection?
- Only actual knowledge of falsity
- Only a commission payment from the customer
- The licensee knew or should have known the information was false
- False information alone, regardless of knowledge
C is correct. A omits the should-have-known part. B concerns compensation, which does not determine agency. C matches this subsection. D ignores its qualified protection.
Change the fact: the question instead asks about Section 15-25's exception for client-supplied information passed to a customer. Actual knowledge of falsity is the stated limit on that exception. The two questions have different source-and-recipient facts.
How does this fit the broker exam?
The PSI booklet dated June 24, 2026, national VI.B.1 and VI.B.2 lists agent fiduciary duties and duties to customers or non-clients, including honesty and good faith. Those topics sit within Agency's 13% of the national broker portion. That is the whole agency area, not a promised number of questions on this comparison. Illinois agency and material facts also appear in the state outline.
For the national concepts, OLDCAR is a useful reminder: obedience, loyalty, disclosure, confidentiality, accounting and reasonable care. For an Illinois-specific question, use Article 15's actual provisions. Section 15-5 makes that statutory framework controlling within its scope rather than importing an unrestricted common-law duty list.
- Name the licensee and represented person.
- Identify the act or statement and the governing jurisdiction.
- Separate bargaining information from a required physical-condition disclosure.
- Match the exact source, knowledge standard and any exception.
Offers need their own check. Section 15-15 includes timely presentation unless waived, while Section 15-75 requires minimum services in exclusive brokerage agreements. Do not use the waiver phrase as a blanket way around those minimum services. See the brokerage-agreement guide for that separate issue.
Client and customer duty questions
Section 15-30 supplies the post-termination rule; Section 15-40 in Article 15 addresses compensation.
Does being a customer mean the licensee can mislead me?
No. Illinois Section 15-25 requires honest treatment and prohibits negligent or knowing false information. It also contains a specific exception for information supplied by the licensee's client when the licensee lacks actual knowledge of its falsity. Customer status is not permission to lie or conceal a known fact that the law requires disclosed.
Does the person paying the commission become the client?
Payment alone does not decide agency. Section 15-40 says payment or a promise of payment is not determinative. Read the representation facts and agreement instead of assuming that the source of the fee identifies every agent's client.
Do confidentiality and accounting end when the listing expires?
No. Section 15-30 preserves accounting for transaction money and property and confidentiality after termination, expiration or completed performance. Read the written agreement too; the section expressly recognizes its possible terms. An expired listing does not by itself make the seller's private price limit public.
Practice the fact that changes the answer
After each question, name the client and explain why the other choices fail. Start with the free broker practice questions. If phone practice fits your routine, you can download Pass Illinois for additional preparation. Use the official sources above when a rule needs checking.