Western Australia: what a buyer's agent must hold, sign and charge

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Kooky

Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.

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Western Australia has no licence called a buyer's agent licence. A person who is paid to find a property, negotiate its price or bid at an auction for a buyer works under the same statute as the agent who lists the property for the vendor: the Real Estate and Business Agents Act 1978. The state's regulator, Consumer Protection, a division of the Department of Local Government, Industry Regulation and Safety, said so again in a media release of 14 May 2026: in Western Australia a buyer's agent must be licensed as a real estate agent or registered as a sales representative.

This guide follows the engagement in order. It sets out who may act for a buyer in Western Australia, what the written appointment has to contain before any fee can be claimed, how the fee itself must be expressed, and what the state's Code of Conduct asks of the agent once the search has started. It draws on Consumer Protection's fact sheet on using a buyer's agent, its page on the elements of a valid appointment to act, the Act and the 2016 Code. It also names what those documents leave open, which includes the detail of continuing training. It describes the general rule only; how a rule applies to one purchase depends on the appointment signed and on the facts.

Consumer Protection fact sheet on using a buyer's agent; Consumer Protection page on valid appointments, last updated 9 March 2018; Code of Conduct gazetted 4 October 2016.

What a buyer's agent does in Western Australia

Consumer Protection's landing page for its fact sheet, last updated on 21 November 2024, defines a buyer's agent as a real estate agent who represents the buyer. The fact sheet adds the two points that shape everything else: the buyer's agent works for the buyer and must act in the buyer's best interests, and using one is optional.

The fact sheet lists the work a buyer's agent may do for a fee. It covers researching and assessing properties, viewing them and attending home opens; using databases and information that are not readily available to the public; dealing with selling agents, contractors and settlement agents; negotiating the price, terms and conditions; and bidding at auctions. It runs past the contract too: arranging building and pest inspections, explaining contract conditions, monitoring settlement and overseeing the final inspection.

None of this has to be bought as a package. The regulator's May 2026 release says a buyer can hire a buyer's agent for the whole buying process or for some steps only. That choice matters legally, because the services chosen are what the written appointment must then record.

Three routes to acting for a buyer

The fact sheet names three kinds of person who may act as a buyer's agent in Western Australia, and a fourth who may not.

The property finder is the contrast. According to the fact sheet, a property finder supplies lists of properties that match a buyer's criteria, is not licensed under Western Australian law and cannot negotiate purchases.

Consumer Protection gives buyers two places to check. A Western Australian licence or registration can be looked up on Consumer Protection's licence search, and an interstate agent on the Automatic Mutual Recognition register.

The licence, the triennial certificate and registration

A licence alone is not enough to trade. The regulator's page on valid appointments, citing section 60(1)(a) of the Act, says an agent must be licensed and hold a current triennial certificate. Section 4 of the Act defines that certificate as one granted to a licensee to carry on business as an agent.

The Act itself fills in the structure. The version read for this guide is the one the Western Australian legislation website shows as current, in force since 1 July 2022, in which the Commissioner, not a licensing board, grants licences and certificates:

• Section 26 forbids carrying on business as an agent, or holding oneself out as one, without a licence and a current triennial certificate. The penalty is a fine of A$100,000.
• Section 27 sets the tests for an individual: aged 18 or over, of good character and repute, a fit and proper person, with sufficient material and financial resources and an understanding of the duties the Act imposes. Being fit and proper includes being qualified in accordance with Schedule 1 of the Act.
• Section 30 makes the licence continuous, and section 31 makes the triennial certificate run for three years, renewable for further three-year periods.

The May 2026 release confirms the substance in current terms: licensed agents must be fit and proper and suitably qualified. The course names and the fees were not on the pages read and are left out here.

For sales representatives, the Act says in section 44 that a person who is not a licensee may act as a real estate sales representative only while holding a current certificate of registration and acting for a licensee or a developer, with a penalty of A$25,000. Section 47 requires an individual to be 18 or over and fit and proper. Section 54 forbids an agent from employing an unregistered representative, and section 55 forbids a registered representative from serving more than one agent or developer at a time; each carries a penalty of A$3,000.

The appointment to act: no document, no fee

Rule 17 of the Code of Conduct is short: an agent or sales representative must not act for a person, or represent that they act for a person, without an appointment to act. The fact sheet translates it for buyers. A written contract is required for a buyer's agent to act, and it is usually called a Written Authority, an Appointment to Act or an Authority to Act.

Section 60 of the Act attaches the fee to that document. As Consumer Protection's page on valid appointments sets it out, an agent is entitled to commission only with an appointment in writing, signed by the person for whom the services are rendered or by that person's lawfully authorised agent. The page describes a valid appointment as what allows an agent to receive remuneration or recover agreed expenses.

Three details deserve a closer look. First, the appointment must be contained in a document: the regulator's page cites a 1999 District Court decision for that requirement. Second, the copy is owed at once. The person who obtains the client's signature must hand over a true copy immediately after signing. Third, the property element applies only where specific property is involved, which fits a buyer's search: at the start there is a brief, not an address.

The consequence of getting this wrong is set out on the same page. Under section 60(3), a person who demands or receives commission, reward or other valuable consideration in contravention of the section faces a penalty of A$5,000, and under section 103(1)(d) the State Administrative Tribunal can order the repayment of commission held in contravention of the Act or the regulations.

Rule 17 also governs change. Any variation of the appointment must be in writing, and it may take the form of an amendment to the original document.

One caution on scope: Consumer Protection's page on valid appointments is written with sellers and landlords in mind and does not walk through a buyer's appointment separately. The fact sheet for buyers says only that a written contract is required and that it should clearly state the services and the fee.

How the fee has to be written down

Western Australian law does not set a buyer's agent's fee. The fact sheet says the law does not set the terms of the contract, so they can be negotiated before signing, fees included. Regulation 6BA(2), as the regulator summarises it, requires the appointment to say exactly that, immediately before the agreed charges: commission is not set by any scale fixed by law and is to be agreed between the parties.

The fact sheet describes three components a buyer may meet: an engagement fee, a success fee that is either fixed or a percentage of the purchase price, and extra fees for particular services such as auction bidding.

What the rules control is how the figure is shown. According to the regulator's summary of regulation 6BA, a percentage commission must also be expressed as a monetary amount; where remuneration for a sale is an hourly, weekly or other periodic rate, the maximum sum payable must be stated in money; and any expenses the agent will recover must be specified by their nature, with the method of calculating them clearly set out. The Code adds its own definition: commission includes any fee, charge or other remuneration, whether monetary or not.

The Australian Consumer Law adds a pricing rule. The fact sheet says the agent must give a single price that includes GST, and where GST is shown separately a total including GST must be given as well. The May 2026 release puts it in one line: the total fee payable must be clearly shown.

In this example the success fee is 2 per cent of A$750,000, which is A$15,000, and with the A$3,000 engagement fee the total is A$18,000. The hourly alternative is A$180 multiplied by 30 hours, a ceiling of A$5,400. A purchase price is unknown when a search begins, so the money amount shown against a percentage rests on an assumed price; the pages read do not say how a buyer's appointment should handle that, and it is one of the terms open to negotiation.

Rule 19 of the Code then closes the gap between the document and the invoice. An agent must not demand or receive a commission, reward or other valuable consideration that is greater than the amount agreed in writing with the client, that is unjust in the circumstances, or that the client has not initialled on the agreement.

Expenses follow the same logic. Under rule 20, an agent entitled to reimbursement must promptly give the client the information reasonably needed to confirm the amount and that it was properly incurred. The fact sheet suggests a buyer ask to approve extra charges in advance, and names fees for council, Landgate or strata company documents as examples.

When a fee falls due

The fact sheet warns that some fees may be payable even if the buyer ends the agreement or buys a property without the agent's help. Its checklist before signing turns that warning into questions: when the fees are payable, what happens if the buyer no longer wants to buy, what happens if the buyer purchases without the agent, what happens if only some of the services are used, whether there are restrictions, and whether the agent has exclusivity for a set period.

The Act has something to say about timing as well. Section 61(4), in the version in force since 1 July 2022, provides that an agent's remuneration for a transaction the agent has negotiated is payable only on settlement of the transaction, unless settlement fails through the fault of the agent's principal or the transaction is a prescribed one, a term that includes the sale of a proposed strata or community titles lot before the lot is created. The same section allows a maximum remuneration to be fixed by notice in the Gazette and, where none is fixed, says a licensee is not entitled to demand, receive or hold an amount that is unjust in the circumstances. Breaching the section carries a penalty of A$5,000.

The two sources are not reconciled on the pages read. The fact sheet describes engagement fees and fees that survive the end of the agreement; section 61 ties remuneration for a negotiated transaction to settlement. Neither document explains how an engagement fee paid at the start of a search sits with that section. It is a point where the terms of the particular appointment, and current advice on the Act, decide the answer.

The Code adds one protection against paying twice. Rule 22 forbids an agent or sales representative from knowingly inducing a person to enter a contract that would make that person liable to pay commission to more than one agent for the same sale, and from inducing anyone to breach an existing appointment to act.

Best interests, care and honesty

The 2016 Code was published in the Government Gazette on 4 October 2016 and its operative rules began the next day. It runs to 29 rules in seven parts, and rule 4 applies it to every agent and sales representative acting for a client, whether a principal of the business or an employee. Under the Code, client includes a prospective client, so the duties start before any appointment is signed.

Four general duties frame the rest. Rule 5 requires the agent to act in good faith in the client's best interests. Rule 6 requires due care, diligence and skill. Rule 7 requires honesty in all dealings, and it reaches beyond the client to other agents, sales representatives and anyone else involved in the transaction. Rule 13 requires compliance with any obligation that arises from a fiduciary relationship with the client.

For a buyer, rule 9 may be the one with the most practical weight. A buyer's agent learns the client's budget and limit. The rule requires confidential information to be kept confidential. Disclosure is permitted only where the law requires it or where the client, fully informed, consents in writing.

The Code read for this guide contains no penalties of its own. It takes effect through the Act: section 34 makes it a condition of every licence that the licensee comply with the Act and the code of conduct for agents, and the Code's own transitional rule refers to sections 34, 50 and 103 of the Act, the last of which deals with disciplinary action.

Conflicts, referrals and rebates

A buyer's agent sits between the client and a network of selling agents, settlement agents, finance brokers and inspectors. The Code deals with what happens when those relationships pull in different directions.

Rule 15 covers the plainest case. An agent or sales representative must not act for more than one client in a transaction unless, before starting to act, the clients have given fully informed written consent. An agency that represents a buyer for a property it also has listed for a vendor is inside this rule.

Rule 16 covers recommendations. Its term supplier includes finance brokers and settlement agents. When recommending a supplier, the agent must disclose in writing any significant relationship, connection or affinity with that supplier and any potential conflict that results. Money is treated in two ways:

• for a supplier other than a settlement agent, any commission accepted for the recommendation must be disclosed in writing;
• for a settlement agent, no commission may be accepted for the recommendation at all.

The rule also looks backwards along the chain: before being appointed by a client who was referred by someone else, the agent must disclose in writing any commission paid or given for that referral.

Rule 18 deals with discounts and rebates linked to a service provider's work; the Code gives stocktakers, tradespeople and advertising providers as examples. An agent must not demand or receive one unless its full nature, extent and amount have been disclosed and the client has consented in writing. The fact sheet's list of questions for a prospective buyer's agent mirrors these rules: whether the agent acts only for buyers, and whether the agent receives benefits such as rebates, discounts or commissions for referring the client to third parties.

The Act goes further where the agent has a personal stake. Section 64 forbids an agent, a sales representative or an employee from having an interest, other than as agent, in a transaction they are acting on unless the principal has given prior written consent. The penalty is A$5,000, and a court may order any profit to be paid over to the principal.

Rule 8 is aimed at the other side of the table but protects buyers directly. An agent acting for a vendor who is related to that vendor must disclose the relationship in writing to each purchaser.

Duties while the purchase is under way

The Code also sets specific duties, several of them written for selling agents. Those that bear on a buyer's agent can be read in the order a purchase follows.

Rule 10 sets the pace: each service is to be provided within a reasonable time after instructions are received, and the agent acts on the client's reasonable instructions. Rule 23 fixes the limit of authority in a negotiation. When acting for a client, an agent must not offer a purchase at a price or on terms the client has not authorised. The ceiling on an offer or an auction bid is therefore the client's to set.

Rule 24 is the due diligence rule. Before the client signs any contract of sale, the agent must make all reasonable efforts to ascertain and verify the material facts that a prudent agent would check, and must promptly tell any affected person who appears to be unaware of a material fact. The version of the Code read for this guide gives the test of the prudent agent and does not list the facts.

Rule 27 requires each offer to be communicated to the client as soon as practicable after it is made.

Behind the individual stands the business. Rule 14 requires an agent who carries on a business to take all reasonable steps to ensure that everyone employed or engaged in it, paid or unpaid, complies with the Act, the regulations and the Code, to supervise and control their work, and to manage the business personally and attend its offices frequently.

Training and renewal: what the sources leave open

Continuing training is the thinnest part of the record assembled for this guide, and it is better named than guessed at. The Act, in the version in force since 1 July 2022, makes the duty direct: under section 40B a licensee must comply with the educational requirements prescribed by the regulations, and section 50C says the same of a sales representative, each with a penalty of A$5,000. Renewal of a triennial certificate has its own calendar in sections 32 and 33: a renewal within one month after expiry takes effect from the day after expiry, one made within 12 months does so only where the Commissioner finds reasonable cause, and after 12 months a fresh written application is required. For a sales representative's registration, section 49 sets the first window at 28 days.

What the prescribed educational requirements are today, how many hours or points they involve, by what date they must be completed and whether any element is specific to buyer-side work was not on the pages read. The fact sheet treats specialist training as a matter for the client to ask about: one of its suggested questions is whether the agent has training specific to buyer's agents.

In Western Australia the buyer's side of a sale is regulated through the same licence as the vendor's side; what changes is whose signature is on the appointment.

Where protection and complaints sit

Consumer Protection's fact sheet points to two layers of protection outside the appointment. The first is the Fidelity Guarantee Account, which covers a client of a Western Australian licensed or registered agent if the agent or an employee steals or misuses money. The second is the Australian Consumer Law: services must be provided with due care and skill and within a reasonable time, and where they are not, the buyer may be entitled to a refund, to compensation or to cancel the contract.

On fees, the appointment itself must tell the client that the Commissioner's help may be sought in a dispute, under regulation 6BA(3). On conduct, the fact sheet says complaints about an agent or a sales representative can be made to Consumer Protection. And where commission has been taken in contravention of the Act or the regulations, the State Administrative Tribunal's power under section 103(1)(d) to order repayment applies.

The regulator's May 2026 release leaves buyers with one more term to look for before signing: the contract should explain how the agreement can be ended if the client is unhappy with the service.

Kooky, from Shaka

Kooky edits Agents Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for real estate professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.

About Kooky and Shaka →