Draft law would introduce four changes for Polish real-estate agents

Poland’s Ministry of Development and Technology has put a draft amendment to the real-estate management law on the Government Legislation Centre’s website. The proposal seeks to impose clearer rules on a profession that no longer requires a license.

Until 2014, aspiring agents had to demonstrate knowledge of real-estate law and economics in an examination. Jarosław Gowin later removed what he called barriers to entering the profession. Today, an agent only needs a clean criminal record and mandatory third-party liability insurance worth 25,000 euros. The ministry says this has contributed to “numerous undesirable practices in the provision of real-estate brokerage services, leading to lower service standards and reduced market transparency.”

The first proposed change would require agents to verify a property’s legal and factual status regardless of what the client agreement says. They would also have to report their findings reliably and document activities connected with presenting the property. The ministry says this could curb cases in which an agent performs no work but still demands payment after a seller or landlord finds a client independently.

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numerous undesirable practices in the provision of real-estate brokerage services, leading to lower service standards and reduced market transparency

The draft would also allow agents to collect a commission from only one side of a transaction. The ministry rejected maximum commission rates as too much interference in economic freedom, leaving fees to negotiation. It argues that collecting money from both buyer and seller, or both landlord and tenant, creates a conflict of interest because the parties want opposite outcomes.

Agents would need to sign an agency agreement with the owner before publishing an advertisement, and the advertisement would have to identify its source as an intermediary. The Trade Inspectorate would enforce the rules. Operating without valid insurance or violating the new requirements could bring a fine of two to five times the average monthly national wage from the previous year. Inspectors could instead order an agent to stop the violation, with a ban on brokerage activity possible for ignoring that order.

Agents responding to the draft said it omitted what they considered most important: education and preparation for the profession, as well as compliance with an ethical code.

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In the draft, what is most important is missing, namely the requirement for education and preparation to practice the profession or compliance with an ethical code.