Do not solicit or accept appointment – CPD courses
Before accepting an appointment to sell or lease a property for a client, a salesperson must take reasonable steps to find out whether the client has already appointed another estate agent/salesperson under an exclusive agency agreement. CPD courses.
If the client has already engaged another estate agent/salesperson on an exclusive basis, the salesperson shall not solicit or accept the appointment if the salesperson knows or ought to know that such an appointment of another estate agent/salesperson is in force. This is because the client may have to pay a commission to the estate agent if the property transaction is closed, or pay damages for breach of contract under the existing estate agent’s exclusive agreement. Such solicitations could be in any form via telephone, text messages, email, mail, personal contact or other electronic means. CPD courses.
Example:
Salesperson A saw an exclusive listing advertised by Salesperson B looking for a buyer. He took the effort to find out and emailed the seller to offer to sell his property at a lower commission. Salesperson A should not have solicited the appointment knowing that the seller had already appointed Salesperson B under an exclusive estate agency agreement.
Estate agents or salespersons shall not knowingly offer or provide their services to sell/rent the properties of prospective clients whom they know are currently parties to ongoing exclusive agency agreements, except with the consent of the prospective client’s exclusive estate agent/salesperson. CPD courses.
When an estate agent or salesperson is contacted by the client of another estate agent or salesperson to create an exclusive relationship to provide the same type of service, and the estate agent or salesperson has not directly or indirectly initiated such discussion, he may discuss the terms upon which they might enter into a future agreement or, alternatively, they may enter into an agreement which becomes effective upon expiration of any existing exclusive agreement. CPD courses.
The estate agent or salesperson shall explain to the prospective client the nature of any continuing risk of liability to pay commission to the other estate agent or salesperson, if the property is acquired by a purchaser which was originally introduced by the other estate agent or salesperson. The salesperson can also alert his fellow salesperson that his client has contacted him regarding the creation of an exclusive relationship to provide the same type of service, subject to the provisions of the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA). CPD courses.
Example:
Salesperson A met Mr B at a function and learnt that Mr B is selling his property. He asked Salesperson A to take over from Salesperson C, whom he had signed an exclusive agency agreement with.
In this situation, Salesperson A should informed Mr B that he may be liable to pay commission to Salesperson C if his property was bought by a purchaser whom Salesperson C had introduced to Mr B previously. Salesperson A could also informed Mr B that he may appoint Salesperson A as his salesperson after B’s exclusive agency agreement with Salesperson C had expired.
Source: Practice Guidelines on Conduct between Salespersons
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