Buyer Brokerage Contract in Quebec: What You Are Signing

The document runs eight pages and often gets signed in a kitchen, between two showings. It has almost nothing in common with the one a seller signs: a different form, different numbering, and a question of remuneration that is not settled the same way at all. Here is what to read and negotiate before you sign.

The buyer brokerage contract is form CCA 00001

Section 24 of the Loi sur le courtage immobilier (Quebec’s Real Estate Brokerage Act) leaves no room: the contract must be evidenced in writing on the mandatory form developed by the OACIQ, and it is formed only once the parties have signed it. For a house, a duplex or a triplex, that form is the Contrat de courtage exclusif, Achat, Immeuble principalement résidentiel de moins de 5 logements excluant la copropriété, the exclusive buyer brokerage contract for a chiefly residential immovable of fewer than 5 dwellings excluding co-ownership, identified as CCA 00001.

Hold on to the word excluant, excluding. Since the amendments that came into force on November 29, 2023, a divided or undivided co-ownership is signed on a different form, the CCADI. If you are looking for a condo in Montreal and someone puts a CCA in front of you, ask the question.

Section 26 makes any verbal contract null. Section 25 specifies that you are bound to perform your obligations only from the moment you hold a duplicate of the contract.

The comparison with the listing brokerage contract, clause by clause is instructive: eleven pages against eight, a mandatory annex of declarations on the immovable for the seller, none for you. Your contract covers a search, not a property you already hold.

Clause 2.1: the term, and the exclusivity that locks you in less than people think

You retain the broker’s services “exclusively” to search for an immovable and conclude an agreement for a purchase. The contract ends at 11:59 p.m. on the date you write in, and failing a date, 30 days after it is entered into. Thirty days is rarely the length of a serious search in Greater Montreal: that date is a decision.

Clause 3.1. The shortest on the form, and the one that decides the rest. It describes the essential characteristics of the immovable sought, and both the exclusivity and the remuneration refer back to “any immovable referred to in clause 3.1”. Written broadly, that line covers almost the entire market. Written precisely, it leaves you room to breathe.

Exclusivity does not mean you stop looking. The OACIQ information sheet is explicit: it applies only between licence holders. Clause 7.2 confirms that you may take steps yourself with an owner, including visiting an immovable open to the public without an appointment, on two conditions: disclose that you are represented, and inform your broker of the steps you took. Which is exactly why it helps to know who the broker at the door of an open house works for.

Clause 6: who actually pays the buyer’s broker

No law sets a rate in Quebec. Clause 6.1 has you choose between a percentage and a lump sum, plus taxes. The percentage applies to the price entered in a promesse d’achat, or to the price sought in clause 5.1 in the case where a voluntary act on your part prevents performance of the contract.

Three situations make it payable: an agreement for the purchase of an immovable referred to in clause 3.1 concluded during the term of the contract, with or without the broker acting as intermediary; an agreement concluded within the 180 days following the end or the termination, where you had been interested in that immovable during the term, unless you have in the meantime entered into an exclusive contract in good faith with another broker; and the voluntary act that prevents performance.

Clause 6.2 answers the real question. It commits your broker to collect any remuneration that may be owed to them by another agency, and provides that the amount collected will be deducted from the remuneration set out in your contract. The share offered in the seller’s brokerage contract therefore comes off what you owe. Everything depends on the gap between the two numbers.

When a difference is left to pay, the OACIQ’s Guide des pratiques professionnelles (its professional practice guide) describes two routes: the direct invoice, or financing that amount inside the price offered, by way of clause R2.5 of the Annexe R, Immeuble résidentiel. The second comes with conditions: according to that same guide, CMHC requires the remuneration to be included in the price of the offer and that price not to exceed the value of the property. To be confirmed with your lender.

A boxed warning accompanies clause 6.2: the amount offered varies from one agency to another and from one property to another, it can even exceed what you agreed to, and the broker must inform you of the amount they expect to receive before you submit an offer. A question to ask for every property, not once. Place your range first with the affordability calculator: the amount to finance changes if remuneration gets added to the price.

Clause 6.3 provides for the reverse. No remuneration is owed if the broker, their spouse or a company they control holds an interest in the immovable sold, nor if, through the seller’s fault, the deed of sale is not signed. The seller’s contract carries the mirror clause, keyed to the buyer’s fault.

Clause 7: the two things you undertake not to do

During the term of the contract you may not, directly or indirectly, negotiate with the owner of an immovable referred to in clause 3.1 through anyone other than your broker, nor become party to an agreement for the purchase, exchange or lease of such an immovable otherwise than as a result of your broker’s services.

Clause 7.3 adds a declaration: you state that you have no buyer brokerage contract still in force with another agency. Two overlapping contracts expose you to two claims for a single transaction.

Clause 8: the broker’s twelve undertakings, and the duty to verify

This is the other side of the bargain, and the part of the form buyers read least. The broker undertakes, among other things, to act with loyalty, diligence and competence, to present as soon as possible any written promise they receive from you, to disclose in writing any interest they hold in an immovable they show you and any remuneration agreement connected to the object of the contract, and to give you a duplicate.

Paragraph 3 deserves a careful read: the broker must carry out the customary verifications and demonstrate the accuracy of the facts or data they pass on to you that do not come from another broker. The rules of ethics go further: discover the factors that could affect you unfavourably, inform you of any unfavourable factor they know of, advise you objectively, and recommend a recognized expert when the protection of your interests requires it.

A buyer dealing alone with the seller’s broker gets none of that. The form Avis du courtier sans contrat de courtage exclusif, Achat, the notice a broker gives a buyer with no exclusive contract, says it plainly: that broker works de facto for the seller, cannot require any remuneration from the buyer, and owes the buyer nothing more than objective information and fair treatment.

Double representation: it is your contract that falls, not the seller’s

Here is the asymmetry nobody explains. Section 29.1 of the Act requires the termination of a contract for a purchase, never a contract for a sale. If your broker learns that you want to make an offer on an immovable they hold the listing on themselves, they must send you a written notice giving reasons and identifying the immovable concerned, recommend that you enter into a new contract with another broker, and they cannot require any remuneration. That warning is built into clause 2.1 of the form.

Two exceptions are set out in the regulation: no licence holder established within a 50 kilometre radius can act as your intermediary, or, within an agency, the broker who holds the listing is not the one representing you. The broker must then inform you of this in writing and obtain your written consent before any offer. Failing that, they terminate.

Terminating a buyer brokerage contract: the three doors

The first is in clause 2.1: unless clause 10.1 stipulates otherwise, you may terminate at any time without giving a reason. You may then be required to pay the expenses and costs already incurred, or to compensate the broker for the injury suffered. Ask in advance which ones.

The second holds even if the contract is stipulated to be non-terminable: section 28 of the Act gives you three days, counting from the day you receive a duplicate signed by both parties, to terminate at your discretion by written notice. Section 29 adds that no remuneration may then be required, unless a transaction meeting the conditions of section 27 occurs.

The third is not yours: the broker may terminate only for a serious reason, and not at an inopportune time.

Frequently asked questions

Does signing cost me anything? In the majority of transactions where the seller is represented, the share offered to the collaborating broker is deducted from your remuneration and nothing is left to pay. The invoice appears when that share is lower than the amount in your clause 6.1, or when the seller has no broker.

I want to buy directly from the owner. Is that allowed? Yes, and clause 7.2 lets you take the first steps yourself. But no share will come from the selling side: this is the case where your clause 6.1 is paid in full. Do the math before the visit, not after.

From when do the 180 days run? From the end date entered in clause 2.1, or from the date of termination, never from the date of signature.

My broker holds the listing on the property that suits me. What now? Except for the cases set out in the regulation, they must terminate your contract, recommend another broker, and they cannot claim anything from you. Many buyers experience that moment as abandonment: it is the opposite, it is the rule that spares you from being advised by the person defending the other side.

To round this out, read what you are actually paying in commission in Quebec, what your broker must tell you about an off-market property and the five questions to ask before hiring a broker.

Someone put a buyer brokerage contract in front of you and one clause is catching your eye? Write to me. I will walk you through the clause and through the clause 6.2 calculation before you sign.

Georges Matar

Residential Real Estate Broker · RE/MAX DU CARTIER INC.

Contact Georges