Real estate news

In the real estate market, the figure of the mediator, who may or may not be a real estate agent, depends on whether or not he or she does business on the basis of a mandate for real estate brokerage.

Our civil code qualifies the mediator as one who relates two or more parties for the conclusion of a business, without being linked to any of them by relationships of collaboration, dependency or representation.

ACTIVITIES OF THE MEDIATOR

The mediator's activity, therefore, is based on the cross-reference between the supply and demand of a given good or service and is completed with the conclusion of the contractual transaction between the parties involved, further activities, therefore, fall outside the scope of the mediation, while they may fall within the mandate given to an agency, which usually offers further services, such as assistance in concluding the preliminary and administrative procedures.

This distinction has led the Court of Cassation to exclude the liability of the mediator in cases of contractual termination of a real estate purchase due to problems of ownership of the property, emerged following the signing of the preliminary or final contract, not detected in advance by the mediator ( thus Cass. 8849/2017, Cassette No 6926/2012, which we dealt with in another article).

LIABILITY LIMITS

The general principle affirmed by the Supreme Court, in short, is that, since the legal system does not impose on the mediator the obligation to assume particular information on the asset being sold, he is not liable for any damages suffered by the purchaser of the property and is not required to return the commission received, unless the parties have expressly established a different regulation of mediation.

RIGHT TO THE PROVINCE

About the commission, the art. 1755 of the Civil Code provides that, in the event that the deal wanted by the parties has been concluded thanks to the intervention of the mediator, the latter has the right to commission, borne by both parties, to the agreed extent or according to professional fees or uses.