Nine months of mandate: long enough to make a baby. Your house, meanwhile, still has no buyer.
Nine months of mandate, a few viewings, no offer. You want to try something else, but you have signed. Good news: a mandate is not a marriage, and the law governs how to get out of it.
Non-exclusive or exclusive mandate: what you signed
With a non-exclusive mandate (mandat simple), you can entrust the sale to several agencies and sell the property yourself. With an exclusive mandate, a single agency is responsible for the sale for the agreed period. Reread your mandate: its duration, its renewal clause and its termination conditions.
The Hoguet law governs this contract: the mandate must be in writing, limited in time, and bear a number in the agency's register of mandates. When it includes an exclusivity clause, it must specify the actions the agent undertakes to carry out to sell and how they will report back to you. You can ask for this report.
Getting out of an exclusive mandate
An exclusive mandate includes an irrevocable period, limited to three months. After that, you can end it at any time, with fifteen days' notice, by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt. Watch out for the clause that protects the agency if you later sell to a buyer it introduced to you.
The 1972 decree implementing the Hoguet law adds a safeguard: an exclusivity clause, a penalty clause, or a clause requiring a commission to be paid even if the agency did not find the buyer only applies if it appears expressly, in very conspicuous characters, in the mandate of which you received a copy.
A mandate is not a marriage.
An example timeline
A fictitious example. You signed an exclusive mandate on 10 January. It is now October: the irrevocable period is over, you can terminate.
Example: the timeline of a termination
| Exclusive mandate signed | 10 January |
| End of the irrevocable period (3 months) | 10 April |
| Registered letter received by the agency | 2 October |
| End of the mandate (15 days' notice) | 17 October |
Until 17 October, the exclusivity continues: you cannot sign with another agency for the same sale.
The protection clause continues after the mandate. If a buyer the former agency showed round comes back to you, it may be entitled to its commission for the agreed period. Keep the list of visitors it sent you and pass it on to your new intermediary.
Before changing, take stock
Changing agency without changing strategy rarely gives better results. Ask yourself the right questions:
- How many views, contacts and viewings in nine months?
- What do visitors say?
- Is the price based on actual sales in the area? The public DVF database, open to all, gives the prices of sales over recent years, street by street.
- Is the listing aimed at the right audience?
- Has an obstacle (legal, technical, planning) been overlooked?
A simple rule helps to read this assessment: many viewings and no offer means the property or its price disappoints on site; few viewings means the listing, the advertised price or the target audience is not working. The two problems do not have the same solution.
The steps, in order
- Reread the mandate: type, date of signature, duration, renewal, protection clause, penalty clause.
- Ask the agency for a written report: advertising, number of contacts and viewings, visitor feedback, offers received.
- Review the situation with them: new strategy, new audience, switch to a non-exclusive mandate or end of the mandate.
- If you decide to stop, send the registered letter respecting the notice period, and note the end date.
- Start again with a different strategy, not just a different shop window.
Mistakes to avoid
- Terminating by a simple e-mail or phone call: the registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt sets the start date of the notice period.
- Dealing directly with a visitor brought by the agency during or just after the mandate: this is exactly the case the protection clause covers.
- Immediately signing a new exclusive mandate at the same price, with the same listing: you lose three more months.
An outside view, even under mandate
You can ask for an outside opinion on your property at any time, including during a mandate. The aim is not to bypass your agency, but to understand what is blocking the sale. Agents themselves call on us for complicated cases, and remain involved in the sale.
Our approach
We look at your property, the history of its marketing and your mandate, then tell you what, in our view, is blocking the sale and what options are open to you.
Frequently asked questions
Can an exclusive mandate be terminated before it ends?
After the three-month irrevocable period, yes, at any time with fifteen days' notice by registered letter.
Can you sell the property yourself during an exclusive mandate?
No, unless the mandate says otherwise: an exclusive mandate reserves the sale to the agency for its duration.
Can you ask for an outside opinion during a mandate?
Yes. An opinion is not a sale; it helps to understand what is blocking, and your agent can remain involved.
Can a mandate be renewed indefinitely?
No. The Hoguet law requires a mandate limited in time: if it provides for renewal, it must set a maximum duration. Check the date on which it ends in any case.
Should you switch to a non-exclusive mandate to relaunch the sale?
Not necessarily. More agencies means more listings at the same price, which can wear out the property faster. A change of strategy matters more than the type of mandate.
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