Colorado § 12-10-409 - Duration of relationship.

§ 12-10-409. Duration of relationship.

(1) (a) The relationships set forth in this part 4 shall commence at the time that the broker is engaged by a party and shall continue until performance or completion of the agreement by which the broker was engaged.

(b) If the agreement by which the broker was engaged is not performed or completed for any reason, the relationship shall end at the earlier of the following:

(I) Any date of expiration agreed upon by the parties;

(II) Any termination or relinquishment of the relationship by the parties; or

(III) One year after the date of the engagement.

(2) (a) Except as otherwise agreed to in writing and pursuant to subsection (2)(b) of this section, a broker engaged as a seller's agent or buyer's agent owes no further duty or obligation after termination or expiration of the contract or completion of performance.

(b) Notwithstanding subsection (2)(a) of this section, a broker shall be responsible after termination or expiration of the contract or completion of performance for the following:

(I) Accounting for all money and property related to and received during the engagement; and

(II) Keeping confidential all information received during the course of the engagement that was made confidential by request or instructions from the engaging party unless:

(A) The engaging party grants written consent to disclose the information;

(B) Disclosure of the information is required by law; or

(C) The information is made public or becomes public by the words or conduct of the engaging party or from a source other than the broker.

(3) Except as otherwise agreed to in writing, a transaction-broker owes no further obligation or responsibility to the engaging party after termination or expiration of the contract for performance or completion of performance; except that the broker shall account for all money and property related to and received during the engagement.

Source: L. 2019: Entire title R&RE with relocations, (HB 19-1172), ch. 136, p. 654, § 1, effective October 1.

Editor's note: This section is similar to former § 12-61-809 as it existed prior to 2019.

ANNOTATION

Annotator's note. The following annotations include cases decided under former provisions similar to this section.

The terms of a brokerage agreement govern the duration of the relationship between the parties to the agreement, and the one-year limitation applies only to those agreements as to which there has not been completion of performance in accordance with their terms. Where performance had begun and was continuing at the end of the first year of an agreement structured with a one-year term and two automatic renewal periods, completion of performance within the terms of the agreement was still capable of being achieved. Only in the absence of completion of performance within the terms of the agreement do statutory alternatives apply. Prop. Asset Brokerage, LLC v. Magna Assocs. Liquidating Trust, 992 P.2d 654 (Colo. App. 1999).

Broker's obligations extended past the expiration of the exclusive listing agreement and continued until the performance or completion of the agreement; thus, the broker's relationship to the engaging party was not converted to a transaction-broker and the broker continued to owe the engaging party the duties owed by a seller's agent. Mabry v. Tom Stanger & Co., 33 P.3d 1206 (Colo. App. 2001).