These General Terms and Conditions (hereinafter “T&Cs”) apply to all activities of evidencing and brokering opportunities carried out by BATU Immobilien, owner Batu Karaoguz (hereinafter “real estate firm”), for clients in connection with the purchase, sale, rental or lease of properties in the Rhine-Main region.
§ 1 Definitions
For the purposes of these T&Cs, a consumer is any natural person who enters into a legal transaction for a purpose that can predominantly be attributed neither to their commercial nor to their independent professional activity (§ 13 BGB). An entrepreneur is a person who, when concluding the legal transaction, acts in the exercise of their commercial or independent professional activity (§ 14 BGB). Unless otherwise specified below, the provisions of these T&Cs apply equally to both groups of persons; deviating special provisions for consumers are expressly identified.
§ 2 Confidentiality of offers
The property offers, property exposés and other documents handed over or sent to the client by the real estate company must be treated confidentially and may only be used for the client's own purpose of initiating the respective transaction. Disclosure to third parties without the consent of the real estate company is not permitted. If the real estate company demonstrably suffers damage as a result, this damage must be compensated by the client who breached confidentiality; the client reserves the right to prove that no damage or substantially less damage was incurred.
§ 3 Liability for information provided by third parties
The real estate company passes on the information communicated to it by the client and by third parties (e.g. sellers, landlords) to the best of its knowledge, but assumes no liability for its accuracy and completeness, insofar as it is not itself responsible for it. The liability of the real estate company for intent and gross negligence, for the breach of material contractual obligations (cardinal obligations) and for damage arising from injury to life, body or health remains unaffected by this.
§ 4 Duty to notify prior knowledge
If the client is already aware of the property identified to them in preparation for the conclusion of a contract, they must notify the real estate company of this without undue delay, at the latest within one week of receipt of the identification, stating the source and date of the prior knowledge. If such notification is not made, the client cannot, in good faith, invoke the prior knowledge in the event of a later conclusion of a contract and remains liable to pay commission in full.
§ 5 Commission on follow-up transactions
Contracts which the client concludes within one year of the termination of the brokerage agreement with a seller, landlord or lessor identified or brokered by the real estate company are also subject to commission, provided that there is an economic or material connection between this contract and the original identification or brokerage activity of the real estate company (follow-up, replacement, additional or supplementary transactions). A purely temporal connection without any substantive relation to the original brokerage service is not sufficient for this.
§ 6 Deviating conclusion of contract
The obligation to pay commission also exists if, instead of the transaction originally identified or offered, a deviating but economically equivalent contract is concluded between the same parties concerning the same property or an essentially similar property.
§ 7 Commission debtor and due date for purchases
The commission arises and becomes due upon the effective conclusion of the purchase contract identified or brokered by the real estate company.
If the client acting as buyer is a consumer and the contract concerns the purchase of an owner-occupied apartment or a single-family house, the following applies: if the real estate company has provided identification or brokerage services for both the seller and the buyer, or if it was commissioned exclusively by the seller, the commission owed by the buyer may not exceed the commission owed by the seller (§ 656c BGB). In this case, the buyer's obligation to pay only arises once proof has been provided that the seller has paid their share of the commission.
In all other cases – in particular in the case of clients who are entrepreneurs and in the case of other properties such as commercial properties or undeveloped plots of land without residential use – the commission is owed by the party that commissioned the real estate company with the identification or brokerage, unless otherwise agreed.
§ 8 Amount of the purchase commission
The agent's commission for the identification or brokerage of a purchase contract amounts to 3 % of the effective purchase price, including furnishings and accessories sold with the property, plus the statutory VAT applicable at the time, currently 3.57 % incl. VAT. For properties outside the scope of § 656a BGB (for example commercial properties, multi-family houses or undeveloped plots of land), the commission stated in the property exposé of the respective property applies. This applies accordingly to acquisition by way of a compulsory auction, insofar as the activity of the real estate company was causal for this.
Brokerage agreements with consumers concerning the identification or brokerage of a contract for an apartment or a single-family house require text form (§ 656a BGB). Oral collateral agreements to such a contract are invalid unless they are confirmed in text form.
§ 9 Commission for the renting and leasing of residential space ("the party who orders pays" principle – Bestellerprinzip)
In the case of the identification or brokerage of a tenancy agreement for residential space, the statutory "the party who orders pays" principle (Bestellerprinzip) applies: the commission may only be demanded from the party that commissioned the real estate company with the search (§ 2 Wohnungsvermittlungsgesetz). If the landlord commissions the real estate company, only the landlord is obliged to pay the commission; passing it on to the tenant is excluded. Unless otherwise agreed, the landlord's commission amounts to 2 months' net cold rent (excluding utilities) plus the statutory VAT applicable at the time, currently 2.38 months' net cold rent incl. VAT.
If the person seeking accommodation commissions the real estate company with the search and the real estate company obtains the mandate from the landlord to offer the apartment exclusively because of this commission (§ 2 Abs. 1a WoVermittG), the commission owed by the person seeking accommodation amounts to 2 months' rent (net cold rent) plus the statutory VAT, currently 2.38 months' net cold rent incl. VAT. Ancillary costs that are to be settled separately are not taken into account (§ 3 Abs. 2 WoVermittG). The housing brokerage agreement requires text form (§ 2 Abs. 1 WoVermittG). Advance payments and further fees, such as registration, writing or expense fees, are not charged (§ 2 Abs. 4, § 3 Abs. 3 WoVermittG).
In the case of the letting or leasing of commercial space and in the case of clients who are entrepreneurs, the "the party who orders pays" principle under sentence 1 does not apply; in these cases the commission is owed by the party that commissioned the real estate company, unless otherwise agreed.
§ 10 Commission for the extension of existing contractual relationships
If, within a reasonable period after the conclusion of a lease or tenancy agreement brokered by the real estate company, the same parties enter into a purchase of the property concerned, the rental of a further space from the same landlord or any other extension or substantive amendment of the original contract, and if there is an economic or material connection between this and the original activity of the real estate company, a commission becomes due for this in accordance with the above provisions. Any commission already paid for the original lease or tenancy agreement will be credited against this.
§ 11 Non-performance of the contract
The non-performance of a validly concluded contract – for example due to subsequent cancellation, rescission or other reversal – does not, in principle, affect the claim to commission of the real estate company that has already arisen. This does not apply insofar as the reversal is based on a circumstance for which the real estate company itself is responsible.
§ 12 Form of amendments and severability clause
Amendments and supplements to the brokerage agreement and to these terms and conditions require text form in order to be effective (§ 126b BGB); this does not apply to agreements made individually between the parties, which always take precedence over these terms and conditions (§ 305b BGB).
Should individual provisions of these terms and conditions be or become invalid, the validity of the remaining provisions shall remain unaffected. The parties undertake to replace the invalid provision with a provision that comes closest to the economic purpose of the invalid provision.
§ 13 Place of jurisdiction
If the client is a merchant, a legal entity under public law or a special fund under public law, the exclusive place of jurisdiction for all disputes arising from or in connection with the brokerage agreement is the registered place of business of the real estate company. If the client is a consumer, the statutory places of jurisdiction apply.