The agency term
Term What it is Appointment Exclusive, in writing, on the Queensland OFT commercial Form 6A Length Up to 12 months, agreed with you before you sign..
Last updated 15 September 2026.
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| Term | What it is |
|---|---|
| Appointment | Exclusive, in writing, on the Queensland OFT commercial Form 6A |
| Length | Up to 12 months, agreed with you before you sign. Six months will usually suit you. A larger or more complex business needs longer |
| Ending it early | 60 days' written notice, either of us |
| If it does not sell | The campaign fee is the only money I keep. No cancellation fee, no advertising bill, no renewal |
| After it ends | 3% payable if you sell to a buyer I introduced, within 12 months. "Introduced" means a buyer who signed a confidentiality deed poll through me and received your information memorandum |
| When the success fee is payable | On settlement. Not on signing, not on unconditional |
How a commission has to be disclosed, and the two dates that decide when it is owed
Disclosure comes first, and it is not optional. The Office of Fair Trading requires an appointment to specify the services, any limits or conditions on them, “the commission, fees and expenses the client will pay you”, “the due dates for each payment”, and an end date for a sole or exclusive agency. Part 7 of the PO Form 6A states that “The commission is negotiable. It must be written as a percentage or dollar amount.” It must include GST and say that it does, and once both parties have signed it cannot be changed.
Then there are two separate moments. Commission is earned when the agent has done the thing the appointment says earns it. Commission is payable when the trigger written into part 7 occurs. The form’s default language for sales and auctions is that “Commission is payable if a contract is entered into and settlement of the contract occurs”, with the trigger to be completed on the form. Queensland Government guidance for sellers notes that contracts commonly make the fee due once the contract goes unconditional, and warns that if the sale later falls over after that date the commission is still owed. Contract, unconditional and settlement are three different risks, and only one of them is written on your form.
Get the appointment wrong and the entitlement disappears entirely. Section 89(1) of the Property Occupations Act 2014 (Qld) says a person cannot sue for, recover or keep a reward or expense unless the person held the appropriate licence, was authorised under it, and was properly appointed under part 4. Section 89(2) makes suing for, recovering or keeping the money outside those conditions an offence, maximum 200 penalty units, which is $34,540 at the Queensland penalty unit value of $172.70 applying from 1 July 2026. The Real Estate Institute of Queensland states that section 112(4) renders an appointment “ineffective from the time it is made if the appointment does not comply with section 104”. An ineffective appointment is not a paperwork problem to be fixed at settlement. It is an appointment that never existed, and section 89 does the rest.
The current Queensland authority on the other side of this is Podium Project Marketing Pty Ltd v B Global (Aust) Pty Ltd [2024] QDC 219, decided in the District Court of Queensland on 12 December 2024, where the appointed agent recovered $253,000 plus interest. The court applied section 89 and the effective cause test from LJ Hooker Ltd v Adams Estates Pty Ltd, asking “whether the actions of the agent really brought about the relation of buyer and seller”. It held that more than one party can be an effective cause of the same sale, and that the agent had been an effective cause through sub agents without ever meeting the buyers. Read together with section 102(6), which allows agents to work conjunctionally with an already appointed agent, that is how a seller can face two claims on one transaction.
Ask what it is worth
Free, in writing, and nobody finds out you asked. Tell me the trade and the suburb and I will do the rest.
Nobody finds out you are selling. This goes to me only, into my own database in Sydney. I will not contact your accountant, your landlord, your bank or your staff, ever, unless you ask me to.
If you would rather not put anything in writing yet, ring 0431 124 128. Prefer to pick a time yourself? Book a time in my diary.
Start with the number. Decide about the rest later.
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