When you pay the real estate agency...

If we often talk and discuss the "amount of the commission", even if 3-4% is now absolutely usual for professional real estate agencies, we address in this space another "thorny" question, namely "when" the compensation, or "commission" must be paid to the real estate agency; Let's clarify it immediately: you pay, generally and rightly, at the time of signing the preliminary sales contract.
If this point is very clear for experts in the real estate sector, it is certainly less so not so much for clients who often, in full confidence, do not contest this point, but for the clients' "consultants" (accountants, lawyers, notaries, bankers) who often claim the right to establish how much and when the fee of another professional should be paid; a bit like if a real estate agency advised its client how much and when to pay the bank or the notary; do you think it's possible? Yet it happens to the detriment of real estate agencies.
To, as they say, "cut the bull's head", perhaps it is better to evaluate this aspect from a legal point of view to say that, even if there is no specific rule that indicates when the compensation must be paid to the intermediary, it is equally true that the Civil Code and the Jurisprudence peremptorily indicate when this compensation, so to speak, "matters"; the right to commission is established by article 1755 of the Civil Code, but it is the jurisprudence linked to the same that clarifies when "the right arises" and let's see a couple of concrete examples: The Civil Court of Cassation (section III, 17/11/1994 n.9743) establishes that "the mediator's right to commission arises when he has brought two or more parties together for the conclusion of a deal..." recalling, in a self-evident way, art.1754 which defines the figure of the mediator; well, the consequent question is to ask ourselves when "a deal is concluded": the sentence of the Civil Court of Cassation tells us this (section III, 13/03/1995, n.2905) indicating that "the conclusion of the deal must be understood as the completion of an operation of an economic nature generating a mandatory relationship between the parties....", or, for those familiar with the matter, the preliminary sales contract which possesses the characteristics highlighted above.
To be more meticulous, the right to the commission could be identified at a time even before the signing of the preliminary contract given that, like all contracts, it is concluded, pursuant to art. 1326 of the Civil Code "when the person who made the proposal becomes aware of the acceptance of the other party", (even if for that "he becomes aware" article 1335 of the Civil Code would deserve to be explored in greater depth); if this is the case, and given that the Jurisprudence considers the already accepted proposals as a contract, containing all the essential elements, the commission could even be requested before signing the preliminary contract.
Therefore, leaving the legislation and returning "to the everyday world", we understand how the claims of those who intend to postpone the payment of a professional service, in fact and by law, which has already occurred until the notarial deed are absolutely unfounded; however, following, looking after and assisting one's client until the moment of the public deed of sale is part of the ethical commitments undertaken by the real estate agency and which, usually, is fully fulfilled and more and more often, this must be said, in synergy with the work of the notary who understands (at least the most far-sighted) that having a prepared and followed real estate agent will help him to have increasingly "educated" practices.
The excuse often used by the customer who claims that "such and such an agency makes me pay less for the notarial deed" is not even valid; it may be that there are some colleagues who are so unprofessional (or who have legitimately agreed to this type of agreement), but what matters and what everyone, clients and their professional consultants in the first place, must now take note of is that the category of real estate agents is, because it is so recognized by law and because it is in fact so, a "Professional Category" and as such it must be respected in all its peculiarities: including the payment of the professional fees due.
Arch. Paolo Padovani

source: edited by Paolo Padovani