COMMISSIONS
According to the current Civil Code, the real estate agent is entitled to the payment of the commission agreed by each of the parties if the deal is concluded as a result of his intervention (art. 1755 of the Italian Civil Code). This simple rule has generated questions in the sellers and in the buyers who have to pay the commission, on the precise moment in which this payment must be made and in doubt, the parties involved in the sale and purchase of a property, sometimes would prefer to delay the moment of payment of the commission to the mediator at the time of signing the final deed of sale through a notarial deed. We therefore ask ourselves when we can consider a deal brokered by a professional real estate agent, that is regularly authorized to practice the profession, remembering that instead the abusive intermediaries not only have no right to the payment of the commission, but, according to recent regulations in this area also risk very heavy financial penalties as well as criminal convictions. Fearing that after having collected his commission, the real estate agent could avoid his residual activity of transmitting further documentation to the parties of the contract and / or to the notary, it could be a source of discussion between the real estate agent and the contracting parties of the deal if the commission must be paid immediately after the communication of the acceptance of the proposal, or at the time of the stipulation of the preliminary contract of sale (compromise), or at the signing of the notarial deed.
Countless jurisprudential pronouncements and in-depth studies of specialized doctrine have identified that the obligation to pay a commission to the real estate agent arises when the deal was concluded and not instead to the definitive stipulation of the notarial deed. Therefore, the moment of payment of the commission is identified by law when the procedure of related actions is carried out and carried out in a period of time very close to the moment of acceptance of the purchase proposal. For article 1757 of the Civil Code, it should therefore be remembered that if the contract brokered by the real estate agent is subject to a suspensive condition, the right to commission arises when the condition occurs; if, on the other hand, the contract is subject to a condition of termination, the right to commission continues to exist with the occurrence of the condition.This is the synthetic procedure from which the payment of the commission to the real estate agent may already arise: 1. The buyer signs the proposal (purchase offer) and receives written notice of its acceptance by the seller; 2. Before the delivery of the deposit check to the seller, the buyer receives all the documentation relating to the provenance of the property, to its urban-cadastral regularity with the presence or absence of encumbrances on the property, which the mediator proceeded to make read and, where necessary, to explain in detail to the buyer before or contextually to the formulation of the purchase proposal. 3. The seller withdraws the deposit check (even if he does not cash it) following the acceptance of the proposal. In terms of law, it is therefore clear that a real estate deal can be considered concluded thanks to the intervention of a real estate agent when the offer made in writing by a buyer (proposer) is accepted with signature by the seller and communicated in writing by the real estate agency to the buyer, by registered letter with return receipt, telegram or certified e-mail (pec) and then the first check is delivered to the seller, left by the buyer to the agency, who delivers it as a deposit (art.1385 cc ). In order for the commission to be paid not upon the signing of the preliminary purchase contract, but after the acceptance of the proposal, it is necessary that the text of the proposal itself be as articulated as possible, containing all the references relating to the provenance, the cadastral and urban situation of the property in the presence of any liens on the property, as well as agreements relating to the condominium aspects.