A second circular ignored confirms the first was policy.

An agency principal spends a good part of the week writing instructions, and much less of it checking whether the last instruction was followed.

That imbalance decides what the office's rules really are. Agents learn the rules by watching what happens to the first person who ignores one. If a note goes round saying that no offer reaches a seller until the buyer's FICA documents are on file, and offers keep arriving without them, and nobody is spoken to, the note has been tested and found empty. A second, firmer note that is also ignored without consequence settles the matter. The office now has a policy. It just is not the one in writing.

FICA is a poor place for that to happen, because estate agents are expected to know who they are dealing with, and the duty does not depend on what a circular once said. A file full of signed offers with no identity documents behind them is a problem on its own terms. The first circular could have been missed or misread. The second was understood and set aside, and every agent in the office now knows how seriously the third will be taken.