The conditions for professional qualification depend on the country of graduation: in France, in Europe (European Union or European Economic Area (EEA)including Switzerland and Monaco) or in a third State.

The financial guarantee is a written undertaking or attestation an authorized insurance company, a credit institution, a financing business or the Caisse des dépôts et consignations, that the funds paid by customers are secured.

This guarantee ensures that all funds deposited by clients with a real estate agency are secure and can be refunded in the event of financial failure of the agency.

Indeed, the real estate agent is led in the exercise of his activity to receive sums of money in deposit for a certain time (payment of a rent, deposit of a security, deposit from a compromise of sale, etc.).

When the guarantee is given by a credit institution or an insurance company, an account must be opened which is exclusively used to receive payments or remittances received under his mandate as intermediary. It can only be openedonly one account per account holder the business card.

The financial guarantee is mandatory for the exercise activities following:

• Real estate transaction with holding of funds
• Real estate management (no declaration of non-holding of funds possible)
• Trustee (no declaration of non-holding of funds possible)

Amount of the financial guarantee

The real estate agent chooses the guarantor himself. It may be an insurance company, a credit institution or the Caisse des dépôts et consignations.

The amount of the minimum security shall be €30,000 during the First 2 years of activity, then it rises to €110,000 minimum.

However, this minimum of €30,000 does not apply to legal persons (business), one of whose legal or statutory representatives has already been subject to the guarantee obligation in the past.

Attestation Template

The financial guarantee certificate must include mandatory information.

A model financial guarantee certificate is made available by CCI France:

Model of financial guarantee certificate of a real estate agent

The real estate agent has the obligation to take out a contract of professional liability insurance (RCP).

This insurance covers both personal injury and material and intangible risks:

• Bodily (e.g. injuries while visiting a property)
• Hardware (e.g. loss of keys to a property for sale)
• Intangible (e.g. forgetting a diagnosis, selling based on incorrect information).

It protects him and compensates his clients in the event of damage.

CPR insurance also covers damages caused by agency employees.

To practice as a real estate agent, you must not have been convicted of an offense that prevents you from carrying out real estate management and brokerage activities.

The following convictions must not have been made:

• Final conviction for crime for less than 10 years
• Sentence of at least 3 months' imprisonment without a suspended sentence for some infringements (including money laundering, active or passive corruption, influence peddling, bankruptcy, drug trafficking, etc.) The complete list of offenses. These prohibitions also apply to members or shareholders of a business holding at least 25% of the shares or voting rights that have been irrevocably convicted for less than 10 years for the same offenses)
• Personal bankruptcy
• Prohibition to engage in a commercial or professional activity of at least 6 months
• Prohibition to manage.

Persons must cease their profession or activity within one month of the day on which the decision giving rise to the incapacity became final and was notified to them

Practicing the profession despite these prohibitions is prohibited: it is a criminal offense punishable by 5 years in prison and €375,000 of a fine.

To practice the profession of real estate agent, you must hold a professional card.

This card is issued by the President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The procedures for obtaining this professional card are different depending on the State in which the professional qualification was obtained.

The choice of a legal form (or legal status) of the company is a decisive step.

It determines how the company operates, but it also has implications for the tax system and social protection.

There are two main legal forms:

• ₪(EI) : allows the holder to carry out his activity alone and in his own name. The Head of company and the one and the same person. Micro-company (or self-company) is one with a simplified tax and social regime.
• Business : allows to carry out an activity in a legal entity distinct from the Head of company. It has the legal personality, i.e. it has its own legal existence (share capital, company name, registered office, etc.).

These two modes of exercise each have their own specific rules:

To make the right choice, it is therefore essential to take into account many factors:

• Exercise of the activity alone or with several partners (in business )
• Tax regime for the taxation of profits
• Social protection scheme according to the envisaged legal form.

To help you choose the legal form that best suits your situation, Urssaf offers the following simulator:

Find the right legal status (form) and compare the cost of social contributions

Contributions called by theUrssaf: titleContent depend on the structure of the business and the legal status of the manager.

To know all the rules concerning the social system of the manager, it is possible to consult the sheet relating to the Social protection of the business manager.

The trader who carries out his activity in his own name ({circumflex over (X)}) or as majority manager of a business (such as a EURL or a SARL), is affiliated to the Social security for self-employed persons (SSI), the compulsory scheme for self-employed persons.

The professional must pay social contributions to the Urssaf from the beginning of his activity.

However, in practice, no contributions or social contributions are required during the first 90 days which follow the launch of its activity.

Since the income is not yet known at the start of the activity, the contributions are first calculated on a flat-rate basis for the first 2 years (at the same rates as those applicable during the course of business). They are then adjusted and regularized according to the actual revenues of the fiscal year.

Contributions must be paid online in one of the following ways:

• Either every month : payment is made on the 5th or 20th of each month, by direct debit.
• Either every quarter : payment is made by direct debit, telepayment or credit card on 5 February, 5 May, 5 August and 5 November.

When he carries out his activity within the framework of a business and holds management functions that give him the status of employee assimilated (president or paid CEO of SAS for example), the professional reports to the general social security system.

His social security contributions are identical to those of an executive employee, and he enjoys equivalent social protection, with the exception of unemployment insurance (optional unemployment insurance is however possible).

Every real estate agent holding the professional card has the obligation to open in his name, in a bank, an account that is exclusively assigned to the receipt of payments received.

All payments received by the real estate agent must be made payable to the credit institution where the account is opened:

• by check crossed out
• by bank-to-bank transfer
• by money order or postal transfer to the bank with indication of the account number
• by payment card.

Each business card holder can only openone account.

This account may be opened at a credit institution other than the one that has provided its guarantee.

Register of mandates

All mandates are listed in chronological order on a listed register.

This register may be kept in electronic form.

The mandate and the mandate register shall be kept for 10 years

Register-Directory

A real estate agent who holds a card marked "Real Estate and Business Transactions" or "List Merchants" and who receives or holds money in the course of their business transactions must keep a register.

All remittances or remittances are paid into a special bank account.

They must then be immediately mentioned in the register-directory.

This register may be kept in electronic form.

It must be stored for 10 years

The real estate agent is the intermediary between the parties (e.g. seller and buyer, lessor and lessor). This position of intermediary is formalized by a document called mandate.

The real estate agent must have this mandate before any operation of mediation or negotiation.

The mandate is a written document indicating the commitment of the principal (property owner, client) and the agent (real estate agent).

It shall specify the following information:

• Conditions for handling funds in which the real estate agent may receive, pay or remit money or property in connection with the transactions.
• Scope of the mission
• Conditions of remuneration : if it is the sole responsibility of one of the parties to the transaction or if it is shared.
• Term of office. It is usually limited to 3 months.
• Registration number in the register of mandates
• Optionally, exclusivity clause. The mandate may be simple or exclusive. The simple mandate allows the client to entrust the business to other professionals or to seek a buyer himself. The mandate is exclusive when the case is entrusted to a single real estate agent as sole agent. After the 3-month period, the exclusive mandate can be terminated at any time (with a 15-day notice).

The National Council of Transaction and Real Estate Professions (CNTGI) has developed a code of ethics that brings together all the obligations of morality, probity and competence.

In particular, real estate agents must comply with the following rules and best practices:

• Obligation of confidentiality concerning the data of which they are aware in the exercise of their activities.
• Reports of confraternity. They must therefore refrain from hurtful or malicious words or actions, from actions or maneuvers that could harm, denigrate or discredit their colleagues.
• Transparency. In particular, they undertake to provide the persons who have been appointed with accurate, intelligible and complete information on their professional activities, the amounts and methods of calculating their fees, their skills and their professional qualifications.

Code of Ethics for Real Estate Agents

Legifrance

Pour en savoir plus

Continuing education is mandatory to renew the real estate agent card.

The real estate agent can renew his professional card only if he has undergone continuous training over the 3 years of past activity.

The duration of the training is 14 hours a year or 42 hours over the 3 consecutive years of activity.

Continuing education must be in direct link to the activity real estate agent. It covers the legal, economic, commercial and technical fields (building, housing, city planning, energy transition).

This may involve participation in training activities. The training organization shall be approved:

Find a real estate agent training

Training may also take the form of attendance at symposia (up to 2 hours per year) or teaching (up to 3 hours per year).

During 3 consecutive years of practice, continuing education shall include at least the following courses:

• at least 2 hours on non-discrimination in access to housing
• and at least 2 hours on other ethical rules.