Brokerage disputes: when an agent can sue for commission

Brokerage is usually agreed on a phone call and denied in writing. When the deal closes and the commission does not arrive, what survives is whatever the agent happened to write down at the time.

What the agent must establish

1. An agreement to pay brokerage, express or made out from conduct and correspondence.
2. That the agent was the effective cause of the transaction — introduction alone is rarely sufficient where a third party actually concluded it.
3. That the transaction was completed, or failed only because of the paying party.
4. The rate, and if none was fixed, the customary rate for that market.

Where claims fail

• No writing at all — no engagement email, no confirmed introduction, no dated site-visit record.
• A parallel agent who can show a closer connection to the closing.
• A claim brought after limitation has run from the date the commission fell due.
• Absence of registration where the law required the agent to be registered, which the defence will raise whether or not it ultimately decides the case.

What to do on every mandate

Confirm the engagement and the rate by email on the day it is agreed. Record introductions with dates and names. Keep the site-visit trail. None of this is elaborate, and it converts a contested claim into a documented one.

An introduction nobody recorded is an introduction that, later, nobody remembers.

Where the file exists the claim is straightforward. Where it does not, the case is usually about credibility — and credibility is expensive to litigate.