NAR Code of Ethics: Articles, Training, and Filing Complaints

The National Association of REALTORS® Code of Ethics is a 17-article rulebook that binds the roughly 1.5 million agents who use the REALTOR® trademark, organized around three sets of duties: to clients, to the public, and to other REALTORS®.¹ It covers how offers get presented, what an agent has to disclose, how marketing can be worded, and how disputes between agents must be handled. If an agent crosses one of those lines, anyone — client or not — can file a written complaint with the local association within 180 days.

What Agents Owe Their Clients: Articles 1–9

Article 1 is the spine of the Code. A REALTOR® must protect and promote the client’s interests while still dealing honestly with everyone else in the transaction.¹ One of the most common complaints under this article involves offer handling: agents must submit all offers and counter-offers objectively and as quickly as possible, with no cherry-picking and no sitting on a lower offer in hopes a better one arrives.²

Article 2 bars exaggeration, misrepresentation, or concealment of relevant facts. Agents aren’t expected to find hidden defects beyond what their training would catch, and they can’t disclose information their state’s agency laws treat as confidential. But anything they actually know that bears on the buyer’s decision has to come out.¹

Article 3 requires brokers to cooperate with each other unless cooperation would hurt the client. It does not require sharing commissions.¹ That distinction became more consequential after NAR’s 2024 settlement, which ended the practice of listing brokers making blanket offers of compensation to buyer brokers through the MLS. A buyer broker can no longer assume an offer to cooperate includes an offer to pay.³

Article 4 requires any personal interest in a property — the agent buying it themselves, or for a family member — to be disclosed in writing before anyone signs.¹

Article 9 requires transaction agreements to be in writing and in plain language, with each party receiving a copy at signing.¹ Since the 2024 settlement, MLS participants working with a buyer must sign a written buyer agreement before touring a home, and that agreement has to spell out the exact amount or rate of compensation. Vague or open-ended compensation terms are no longer allowed.³

What Agents Owe the Public: Articles 10–14

Article 10 is the Code’s fair housing rule. REALTORS® cannot deny equal professional services based on race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, national origin, sexual orientation, or gender identity.¹ The federal Fair Housing Act does not explicitly name sexual orientation or gender identity; NAR members are held to the broader list.

Standard of Practice 10-5 extends Article 10 to harassment in professional settings, covering conduct whose purpose or effect creates a hostile, abusive, or intimidating environment that interferes with equal services or employment opportunities. The standard was amended in 2025 to limit its reach to real estate-related activities, after an earlier version that applied regardless of context drew controversy.¹

Article 11 requires agents to stay inside their actual competence. A residential agent taking on a complex commercial lease has to bring in someone qualified or clearly disclose the gap. Article 12 requires honest advertising in every format, including social media and digital ads, with the agent and brokerage clearly identified. Article 13 bars the unauthorized practice of law and tells agents to send clients to a lawyer when legal issues go beyond what a license covers; this comes up with contract contingencies, title disputes, and zoning questions. Article 14 requires members to cooperate fully with any professional standards investigation, hand over relevant facts, and not obstruct the process.¹

What Agents Owe Each Other: Articles 15–17

Article 15 bars false or misleading statements about competitors or their business practices. Article 16 protects exclusive relationships: if a seller already has an active exclusive listing agreement, or a buyer has an exclusive representation agreement, another agent cannot take actions inconsistent with it. Article 17 requires REALTORS® to resolve certain contractual disputes with each other through mediation and, if that fails, arbitration, rather than filing a lawsuit. Clients can also use the association’s arbitration process for contractual disputes arising from a real estate transaction, so long as everyone agrees to be bound by the result.¹

The Ethics Training Cycle

Every REALTOR® has to complete ethics training during each three-year cycle. The current cycle runs January 1, 2025 through December 31, 2027.⁴ A member who misses the deadline is automatically suspended for January and February of the following year, and if the training still isn’t done by March 1, membership is terminated.⁵ During the suspension period the member still has to follow the Code and pay dues but loses the rights of membership.

How to File an Ethics Complaint

Anyone can file. You do not have to be an NAR member or work in real estate. Consumers, other agents, and members of the public all have standing.⁶

The 180-Day Deadline

Complaints must be filed within 180 days. The clock starts on the later of two dates: the day you knew or should have known about the potential violation, or the day the transaction or event concluded. If you use the association’s informal dispute resolution services first, the 180-day clock pauses while those run and resumes when they end.⁷

Try the Ombudsman or Mediation First

Most local associations offer ombudsman services. An ombudsman is a neutral party focused on communication and conciliation; they don’t decide whether anyone broke the Code and don’t award money. Conversations are confidential, and you can decline the service and go straight to a formal complaint.⁸

Ethics mediation is a separate voluntary track. Both sides must agree, either can withdraw, and the parties can shape the resolution — an apology, repairs, payment of disputed funds, or an agreed disciplinary outcome. Mediation proceedings are confidential, and mediators cannot refer concerns to the Grievance Committee or a licensing authority.⁹

The Formal Complaint

The formal process starts with Form #E-1, available through your local association.¹⁰ The complaint has to be in writing, dated, and signed in your own name. Anonymous complaints are generally not accepted, with narrow exceptions under some associations’ citation policies.⁶

The core of the complaint is a clear, chronological statement of facts: what happened, who was involved, and when. Stick to events and skip the editorializing. Attach supporting evidence like emails, text messages, signed contracts, or copies of misleading ads. You also have to identify which specific articles of the Code you believe were violated and list any witnesses.

Grievance Committee Screening

The local Professional Standards Administrator routes the complaint to the Grievance Committee for an initial screening. That committee does not decide guilt. It answers one question: if the allegations were true, could they amount to a Code violation? If yes, the complaint moves to a hearing before the Professional Standards Committee. If the Grievance Committee dismisses it, you can appeal that dismissal.¹¹

The Hearing

A formal hearing works much like a trial. Both sides present testimony and evidence and can cross-examine the other side’s witnesses. Written notice of the hearing date and location goes out at least 21 days in advance.¹² A panel of peers decides whether a violation occurred and what discipline to recommend.

What the Panel Can Impose

The hearing panel has a wider range of sanctions than many people expect:¹³

A letter of warning or reprimand placed in the member’s file.
Required completion of a specific ethics course or seminar.
A fine up to $15,000, which is the maximum per hearing regardless of how many articles were violated.
Suspension of membership for 30 days to one year, with automatic reinstatement afterward.
Expulsion for one to three years, after which the member must reapply on the merits.
Suspension of MLS access for 30 days to one year, or termination for one to three years.

A member facing suspension may sometimes be allowed to pay an assessment up to $15,000 instead, but that substitution can only be used once in any three-year period.

Appeals

Either party has 20 days after the hearing decision to appeal. The respondent — the agent found in violation — can appeal based on a misapplication of the Code, a procedural problem that denied due process, or the severity of the discipline. The complainant can appeal only on procedural grounds that prevented a full and fair hearing. Sanctions do not take effect until the appeal period expires or the appeal is resolved.¹⁴

1
National Association of REALTORS®. 2026 Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice
2
National Association of REALTORS®. Part 4, Appendix IX — Presenting and Negotiating Multiple Offers
3
National Association of REALTORS®. Summary of 2024 MLS Changes
4
National Association of REALTORS®. Code of Ethics Training Cycles
5
National Association of REALTORS®. Consequences for Failure to Complete Code of Ethics Training
6
National Association of REALTORS®. Part 4, Section 20 — Initiating an Ethics Hearing
7
National Association of REALTORS®. Part 4, Appendix X — Before You File an Ethics Complaint
8
National Association of REALTORS®. Local and State Association Ombudsman Services
9
National Association of REALTORS®. Part 4, Appendix XI — Ethics Mediation
10
National Association of REALTORS®. Forms
11
National Association of REALTORS®. Part 3, Section 19 — Grievance Committee’s Review of an Ethics Complaint
12
National Association of REALTORS®. Part 4, Section 21 — Ethics Hearing
13
National Association of REALTORS®. Part 2, Section 14 — Nature of Discipline
14
National Association of REALTORS®. Part 5 — Chairperson’s Procedural Guide: Conduct of an Appeal Hearing (Ethics)