The visit voucher is a document used by the real estate agent mandated by a seller to sell his/her property to prove a potential buyer actually visited the property at issue.
If no such document has been signed, there is nothing to stop you from negotiating directly with the person selling the property. By signing the visit voucher, you are not committing to anything, you are merely acknowledging that you visited the concerned property through the real estate agent. This voucher actually forbids you from contacting the owner to negotiate the sale directly, in other words, without the real estate agent’s involvement. If the agent can prove you attempted to “go behind his/her back” by negotiating directly with the seller, your responsibility could be at issue.
But when a seller puts his/her property on the market, he/she can go through several real estate agencies, as long as he/she has not signed an exclusive mandate with one of them.
Up until last year, judges considered that the seller who sold his/her property using another real estate agent than the one who introduced him/her to the buyer should pay the first agent the amount of the commission as damages.
In a decision by the Court of Cassation of 15 May 2007, precedence confirmed the change initiated in 2006 (decision of 16 May), and “released” the seller.
In fact, according to the judges, the commission now belongs to the person who makes the sale, that is, the person who signs the deed of sale.
In conclusion, if the seller of the property that interests you has not signed an “exclusive mandate” with a real estate agency, you can visit this same property through another agency and deal with them after that.
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