The listing states a buyer's commission. Later you receive an invoice or are asked to sign a cost acceptance. To classify that you need more than the percentage: who has concluded which contract with the brokerage? This article concerns the purchase of an apartment or a single-family house in Germany by a consumer. For other items of purchase and commercial buyers you must not simply assume these special allocation rules.
Separate your own contract from the cost acceptance
Under § 656a BGB an estate agent contract for the proof or mediation of a purchase contract for an apartment or a single-family house requires text form. [TEXT] Our editorial recommendation: therefore secure the full declaration to which you agreed, together with annexes and later amendments. Note whether you yourself concluded an agency agreement or whether costs from a contract of the selling side are to be passed on to you.
An item in the purchase cost calculation does not answer this question. Ask for the concrete basis of the claim and the full agreed amount if anything is unclear. Also compare whether a previously mentioned sum was described as the total amount or only as your alleged share. This article does not state a customary or legally fixed commission rate.
When both contracting parties conclude an agreement
§ 656c BGB concerns the case where the brokerage obtains a promise of an agent's fee from both parties to the purchase contract. In the covered case the parties must commit in equal amounts. If the activity is agreed to be without charge for one side, no agent's fee can be promised to the other side; a waiver also benefits the other contracting party. The provision also contains a rule of invalidity for deviating agreements. [BEIDE]
The special rules of §§ 656c and 656d apply under § 656b only to consumer purchases. [BEREICH] A verbally mentioned half-and-half division therefore does not replace examination of the object of purchase or the actual contractual constellation. If one side is to receive a discount, the effect of that must be expressly examined.
When only one contracting party has commissioned
For an agreement on payment or reimbursement to the detriment of the other side § 656d BGB applies: the commissioning contracting party must remain obligated at least to the same amount. The claim against the other side only becomes due when the commissioning party has paid its obligation and it or the brokerage proves this. [UEBERNAHME]
This proof belongs to this special cost-acceptance model. Do not transfer the duty of proof unexamined to every bilateral commissioning under § 656c. Conversely, an invoice bearing the words buyer's share alone is not yet evidence that, in the case of a cost acceptance, the necessary prior payment has already been made.
Amount and due date are two different checks
The general basis of claim in § 652 BGB ties the promised agent's fee to the contract being concluded as a result of the proof or mediation; where there is a suspensive condition the fee is only demanded upon its occurrence. Agreed reimbursement of expenses is to be considered separately. [ERFOLG] Whether the prerequisites are met in the specific transaction does not follow from an issued invoice alone.
Therefore classify the basis of claim, amount and payment time separately. A valid agreement on an amount does not automatically make every demanded payment date correct. For an unclear or disputed claim the documents should be professionally examined in a timely manner, rather than sending a general internet rule as a finished answer.
Example: same total sum, different payment route
Fictitiously a total of 6.000 euros is considered, without claiming a real market price. If in the model with two contracts both parties commit to 3.000 euros each, the equal amount is central. If instead only the selling party commissions and 2.000 euros of its agreed remuneration are to be transferred to the buyer, the remaining obligation of the seller must be at least as high. In this second model, their payment together with proof is additionally relevant for the due date of the buyer's claim.
Proceed with a comprehensible claim
In the end the object of purchase, consumer status, contractual model, agreed sum and reason for due date should be recognisable together. Keep payment receipts separate from mere estimates of incidental purchase costs. This article does not decide an individual case, does not address a right of withdrawal notice and does not replace examination of unusual side agreements. It helps you, when buying an apartment, to ask the right question of the right cost position.