ÁAngel More, associate of Tomarial Tax Area, has published in the magazine 3 Economy an article entitled: «Back with the 'visit sheets' of real estate agencies. A text that focuses on the recent rulings on the contractual value of these visit sheets and their validity. We reproduce the text below:
Reviewing the judicial chronicle prior to the month of August, the month of holiday par excellence for professionals in the world of law, I recover a sentence of the Provincial Court of Cádiz, Section 8, of March 10, 2021 that would have reached a certain transcendence in the media of communication, relative to the contractual value of the calls "Visit sheets" that usually those who are interested in the purchase of a property sign at the request of the employees of the real estate agency during the visit or at its conclusion. The Cádiz sentence referred to, whose argument is far from new (there are many previous similar judicial pronouncements, and even some media mentioned at the beginning of August a very recent sentence of the Valencia Court) would have caused a clarification of the Official College and Association of Real Estate Agencies and Agents of Madrid (COAPIMADRID - AIM), clarifying that the agency fees would be charged after an engagement note signed by the seller and that the "Visit sheets" they would only serve for the purpose of justifying the carrying out of negotiations for the sale by the agents.
The assumption of fact of departure is frequent: a citizen looking for a property who, after locating an advertisement of interest, makes an appointment to know , the same and during it, the agency asks you to sign a part certifying the visit, which contains a clause of recognition of fees in favor of the real estate agency for a variable percentage.
The resolution of the Hearing of Cádiz, in line with previous and subsequent ones, comes to resolve that the referred "visit sheets " they are only that, proof of the work carried out by the agency, which in no case would have contractual value as it does not overcome the filters imposed by the regulations on consumer protection, such as mandatory transparency, individualized negotiation and a necessary balance between the benefits to which the parties are bound. And it is that these rarely contain obligations for the intermediary. In conclusion, it would be mere adhesion clauses where the consumer (and possible buyer of the property) could not agree or negotiate anything, null and void because they are abusive and that they would be considered as not being placed.
Beyond what has been stated so far, it is worth wondering about the nature of the fees whose recognition is sought through the “visit sheets ", sometimes justifying them by real estate agents with the argument that they reward the advisory work performed by them. Thus, it is worth asking whether it is really possible to simultaneously advise seller and buyer, when their interests may not coincide (but openly disparate), and the benefit of one entails the consequent damage of the other. In the field of law, I think it is not daring to say that such a professional "double assignment" would have a difficult fit, although - I don't know - in the field of real estate advice, perhaps it does, even though it seems complicated to me. In any case, the debate is served.
Angel Mas. Tomarial Tax Area Associate
