Real estate agents maximum fee 5%

[mlun]

As far as I know it is only allowed for real estate agents in Spain to charge 5% in commission. However, does this also apply for someone who is not formally organized/registered as a real estate agent? The President in our complex was intermediary when a studio was sold some time ago. The buyer was told to pay 10% (5000€) to the President, which he was convinced at the time was a 10% prepayment. But no, our President kept this as a commission (that she kept personally).
The buyer went to a solicitor to try to get his money back, but was told that there was nothing he could do. Based on the 5% commission ceiling I do not understand this.

[TenerifeTeddy]

I am sure that CIM or YG will come along later with more information, but as far as I know, there is no regulation on what Estate Agents can charge, in fact there is no regulation on the industry at all!

IMPO I would always say that the only safe way is to always use established recommended agents, that others have used and been dealt fairy with, the aforementioned being 2 of those. It sounds to me that the President on that complex has made himself a nice little earner, which I doubt very much the tax man knows anything about

[CIM]

Not sure where the president fits into a sale unless they introduced the buyer to the seller? In which case they should have invoiced and been paid by the seller if this was agreed. The seller may have told them to just add their commission on top which is why they charged the buyer?

I get offered quite a few properties where we are just told to add on our commission but this then wont go on the escritura (usually investors reselling at a set price.) It makes sales very fiddly but there is a lot of this going on at the moment. In these cases an invoice is sent to the buyer and the amount charged is detailed in the total costs breakdown which both buyer and seller see. Otherwise the buyer simply doesnt know where their money has gone.

5% is standard but not written in stone.

[YOUNG GOLFER]

As far as I know it is only allowed for real estate agents in Spain to charge 5% in commission. However, does this also apply for someone who is not formally organized/registered as a real estate agent? The President in our complex was intermediary when a studio was sold some time ago. The buyer was told to pay 10% (5000€) to the President, which he was convinced at the time was a 10% prepayment. But no, our President kept this as a commission (that she kept personally).
The buyer went to a solicitor to try to get his money back, but was told that there was nothing he could do. Based on the 5% commission ceiling I do not understand this.

Think you will find most Agents here will work on 5%.

As for the President making 10% well all i can say to that is did this person(the buyer) have a Lawyer? the reason i say this is because you say the buyer then went to a Solicitor to try and get his money back.

I can share one thing with you regarding a President on another complex i went to the other day....there was a brand new gate to the complex and the owner being in the UK never had a key to this....so when talking to the President his words were......why should i give out a key to Agents because i won't get anything from the sale.

I just looked at him and thought what a idiot....but this can be the case over here at times....sorry to say.

Did your friend use a Agent for the sale?

I know you don't have to use a Lawyer when selling property here, but in the case above it would of saved them a lot of money had they did.

[mlun]

Think you will find most Agents here will work on 5%.

As for the President making 10% well all i can say to that is did this person(the buyer) have a Lawyer? the reason i say this is because you say the buyer then went to a Solicitor to try and get his money back.

I can share one thing with you regarding a President on another complex i went to the other day....there was a brand new gate to the complex and the owner being in the UK never had a key to this....so when talking to the President his words were......why should i give out a key to Agents because i won't get anything from the sale.

I just looked at him and thought what a idiot....but this can be the case over here at times....sorry to say.

Did your friend use a Agent for the sale?

I know you don't have to use a Lawyer when selling property here, but in the case above it would of saved them a lot of money had they did.
My friend was buyer, and both buyer and seller thought this "nice" old lady, as president for the community just helped them through the deal so they saved the fee to the real estate agent. But knowing this lady I wouldn't be surprised if she also got a commission from the seller.

Bad moral in my opinion, and if people in such positions get fees via their paid work for the community, I would expect the fee to go into the community's bank account. But seemingly people gets greedy down here and totally looses respect for moral and law.

I completely agree in that using a lawyer is always a good idea. I used one myself, and that proved to be a very wise decision!