Kuwait regulates the profession of real estate brokerage

KUWAIT CITY: Minister of Commerce and Industry Khaled Al-Roudhan issued a decree regulating the profession of real estate brokerage and barring the practice without obtaining the license from relevant authorities to do so, and registering on the real estate brokers registry – in accordance with the provisions of Resolution 164/2020, reports Al-Qabas daily.

The following is the most prominent among the items mentioned in the Ministry of Commerce’s decision: For a natural person, he must be a Kuwaiti citizen or the citizen of one of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries; be at least twenty-one years old when submitting the application, and must have full legal capacity at the time of registration. He should not have been convicted of a felony or a crime that violates honor or trust; otherwise, he must have been rehabilitated.

He should not be registered in the real estate residents registry; pass the training programs and tests required by the Real Estate Department at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry – with the exception of brokers licensed to engage in real estate brokerage before the implementation of this decision; to allocate an independent office for practicing real estate brokerage and accept commitment to the code of ethics.

For a legal personnel to form a company in accordance with the provisions of the Companies Law with the primary purpose of engaging in real estate brokerage, he must be based in Kuwait and declared bankrupt, while the responsible manager should fulfil the conditions mentioned in the first paragraph of this article.

Register of brokers

The application for registration in the brokers register shall be submitted to the competent department on the form prepared for this purpose, and the required documents shall be attached to it.

The wages of real estate brokerage in sales contracts and assignment contracts for the right of usufruct are fixed at a rate of 1% (one percent) of the contract value to be paid equally between the two parties, and the wage is determined in lease contracts equivalent to half the monthly rent for one month and parties to the brokerage contract may agree. Otherwise, if more than one broker participates in the mediation or negotiation, in order to reach an agreement that leads to the completion of the agreement, then they all share the wages, as if they were one broker.

The wages are divided equally between them, unless there is another agreement specifying the percentage of each of them in the payment of broker’s wages. The following are required: That the mediation leads to the conclusion of contract between the two parties, and the brokerage contract must be in writing. That the mediation process be recorded in the broker’s book, with its basic data and documents verified in this book. The contract should not be conditional on a suspended condition, otherwise he is entitled to a fee when the suspended condition is met.

Brokers’ obligations

The broker or his deputy shall provide all information, data and statistics related to his activity as requested by competent authorities. Every broker must submit everything requested by the Real Estate Department at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, especially copies of real estate books or license. Every broker registered in the aforementioned register must provide the Ministry of Commerce and Industry with a copy of the books annually.

The broker or his deputy must inform the clients of all details of negotiations and the stages of mediation he conducts, as well as any information deemed necessary to enable the client to take the appropriate decision to conclude agreement with the other contractor, especially when the client is informed of the financial condition of the other party in the deal in order not present to the other party a client who knows well he is insolvent. The broker or his deputy must inform the buyer of all documents and papers provided by the seller. The broker and his deputy may not disclose clients’ secrets to others.