Sole or multi-agency mandate in France: term and exit

Three types of mandate

Source: service-public.gouv.fr, guidance pages F1550 and F2954.

With a simple mandate, only the agent who brings about the sale receives fees; the seller does not have to compensate the other agencies (service-public.gouv.fr). With an exclusive mandate, the seller does not have to compensate the agent if the agent does not achieve the sale. The semi-exclusive mandate may leave the seller free to sell privately without paying fees, or provide that the seller refers a buyer they find to the agent, in return for reduced fees.

Only a professional holding the “Transactions sur immeubles et fonds de commerce” licence (property and business transactions), known as the carte T, may sign a mandate (service-public.gouv.fr). The agent may neither negotiate nor commit to anything without a written mandate issued beforehand by one of the parties (decree of 20 July 1972, art. 72).

Compulsory terms

According to service-public.gouv.fr, the mandate is written, dated, signed and drawn up in 2 original copies. It must state:

• the identity of the seller (the mandant, or principal) and of the agent (the mandataire);
• the purpose of the mandate and a description of the property;
• the sale price;
• the term of the mandate and its termination conditions;
• the agent’s remuneration and the party who pays it (seller or buyer);
• the conditions under which the agent may receive, pay out or hand over funds;
• the registration number in the mandate register, on the seller’s copy;
• the means the agent uses to advertise the property.

For an agent to sign a deed on the seller’s behalf, a clause in very prominent type must authorise it; a mandate containing this authorisation “expressly says so” (decree, art. 72).

The exclusive mandate also contains an exclusivity clause, again in very prominent type. It sets out the actions the agent undertakes to carry out and how the agent reports on them, “at intervals determined by the parties” (loi Hoguet, art. 6).

No sum is due to the agent before the transaction has been “actually concluded and recorded in a single written instrument” (loi Hoguet, art. 6); service-public.gouv.fr specifies that fees are paid after the final deed is signed at the notaire’s (notary’s) office.

Term and renewal

An agreement that does not limit its effects in time is void (loi Hoguet, art. 6). For simple and semi-exclusive mandates, the most common term is 3 irrevocable months (service-public.gouv.fr).

Reconduction tacite (automatic renewal). A simple or semi-exclusive mandate may renew automatically. The agent must then inform the seller of their right not to renew, by letter or email sent no earlier than 3 months and no later than 1 month before the expiry date; failing that, the seller may end the contract at any time from the renewal (service-public.gouv.fr). The exclusive mandate, by contrast, cannot be renewed automatically: when it expires, a new mandate must be signed.

The mandate ends on the death of the seller or of the agent, unless the agent operates through a company (service-public.gouv.fr).

Terminating after 3 months

Article 78 of the decree of 20 July 1972 covers any mandate with an exclusivity clause or a clause pénale (penalty clause): “once a period of three months from its signature has elapsed”, it “may be terminated at any time by either party”, provided the other is notified “at least fifteen days in advance by recorded-delivery letter with acknowledgement of receipt”. This option does not apply to the sale of a building in lots, to the first transfer of shares in a société immobilière d’attribution (property allocation company), or to the letting in parts of commercial premises within the same complex.

For a simple or semi-exclusive mandate, you must wait until the end of the initial term; once the contract has been renewed, it can be terminated at any time, with the same 15 days’ notice by recorded-delivery letter (service-public.gouv.fr).

Withdrawal. A mandate signed away from the agency following doorstep or unsolicited selling can be withdrawn within 14 days, starting the day after signature, by recorded-delivery letter, without giving reasons; this right is lost if the agent has already started viewings with the seller’s agreement (service-public.gouv.fr; code de la consommation (Consumer Code), art. L221-18).

Penalty clause and mandate register

A penalty clause may require the seller to compensate the agent if they sell to a buyer the agent introduced, even after the mandate has ended, during a period set in the contract that may run up to 24 months (service-public.gouv.fr). It must appear in very prominent type and cannot provide for a sum greater than the fees stipulated in the mandate (decree, art. 78).

The register. “All mandates are entered in chronological order in a register of mandates”; the registration number is copied onto the principal’s copy. The register is numbered without gaps and bound, or kept in electronic form, and both the mandates and the register are kept for 10 years (decree, art. 72). A mandate with no number on your copy is worth raising with the agency.

Which professional to consult

The agent immobilier (estate agent) holding a carte T proposes and signs the mandate; ask for their card number and the mandate’s registration number in the register. The notaire (notary) then drafts the preliminary contract or the deed of sale, after which the fees become payable. The diagnostiqueur (property surveyor) prepares the technical survey file, and the géomètre-expert (chartered land surveyor) marks out the boundaries of a plot before it is put on the market.