New broker law when buying an existing property?

Hello everyone,

My name is Manuel and I am new here in the forum. I hope my question is appropriate and welcome here? If not, please delete it.

It concerns the new broker law, which has been in effect since 23.12.2020. My girlfriend and I are about to buy a house. We first viewed this property at the end of November 2020 and, after reviewing our financial possibilities, expressed purchase interest at the beginning of December. The seller is a community of heirs, so the whole matter has been dragging on until now. The notary appointment will probably finally take place at the end of the month. We already have a draft purchase contract with two amendments. For us and actually also for the broker commissioned by one of the sellers, it was clear that after 23.12.2020 the broker commission would be split 50% to us and 50% to the seller. At an appointment with the broker last week, it was suddenly said that we now have to pay 100% commission because the new regulation does not apply to us since we had already viewed the house in November and had verbally expressed our purchase interest at the beginning of December. I still believe that the decisive date is the signing of the purchase contract. Does anyone here know any advice or already has current experience with this?

Thank you!

Questions out of interest: How was the brokerage contract concluded? Was there a revocation instruction from the broker?

I still believe that the date of the purchase contract signing is crucial. Does anyone have advice here or already current experience with it?

It is the point in time at which the brokerage contract was concluded that is decisive. And therefore already at the first viewing.

Questions out of interest:
How did the brokerage contract come about? Was there a cancellation policy provided by the real estate agent?

I do not know the brokerage contract. It exists between the real estate agent and the seller. We ourselves have not concluded a contract with the real estate agent.
But maybe I am also defining the term brokerage contract incorrectly?
For me as a buyer, a brokerage contract would only come into existence if I hire a broker to search for a property for me. Is that how I see it?

I don't know the broker contract. It is between the broker and the seller. We ourselves have not concluded a contract with the broker.
But maybe I am also defining the term broker contract incorrectly?
For me as a buyer, a broker contract would only come into existence if I commission a broker to search for a property for me. Am I seeing that correctly?

That is precisely the special thing about a broker contract. In general, there is often the belief that you necessarily need signatures or extra commissions for a contract. However, many contracts can also come into being implicitly – for example, when buying bread rolls at the baker:

An implicit action exists in legal transactions when someone silently expresses their will and the honest recipient can conclude from this a will to be legally bound, so that a contract can come into existence even without an explicit declaration of intent.

In the case of the broker, for example, a contract comes into existence when an interested party is interested in a property they found on an online portal. The broker is contacted, for example, by email or phone. The broker sends the exposé to the interested party by email and the interested party then wants a viewing appointment and the broker agrees. At the latest at the viewing, a contract – without a signature – has come into existence between the broker and the interested party, which creates mutual rights AND obligations. An essential (!) obligation of the broker here would be, for example, the proper (!) handing over of a cancellation policy. If the broker omits this, the cancellation period is extended by 12 (!) months. Thus, the contract could be revoked after the purchase of the property and the broker loses their commission claim.

(briefly summarized ...)

Ok. So it looks like we can't avoid the 100% commission. That means about €5000 more costs, which we lack for the necessary renovation work. So I actually had a wrong idea about the broker contract. It is probably optimal if you can buy without a broker. Unfortunately, the offers in our region are very limited.