Realtors sought to receive a brokerage fee for real estate brokerage services they provided to the Chinese embassy in purchasing of real estate, all despite the absence of a written brokerage fee agreement.
The Court dismissed the relators claim due to the absence of a written brokerage fee agreement. A realtor will not be entitled to brokerage fees unless the customer executed a brokerage fee agreement containing all the details required by law. While the reasoning for a mandatory written agreement is primarily the regulation of the real estate brokerage field and protection of private apartment buyers, the law does not distinguish between a business client and a private client. This is both to the difficulties in classifying clients (e.g. when it comes to "small" business entities) but also because even in a transaction between a relator and a large business entity, often the relator still has the upper hand when it comes to experience and expertise. Hence, even in such cases, the protection provided to the clients should not be offhandedly removed. Here, highly experienced relators agreed to provide real estate brokerage services to the Chinese Embassy, while agreeing in advance that no brokerage fee agreement would not be drafted. Therefore, they are not entitled to a brokerage fee and their client being a business client does not affect that outcome.