General Contractual Terms and Conditions in Estate Agency Contracts

 Decree-Law 102/2017 of 23 August came into force practically one year ago. Its objective was to simplify and harmonise the consumer information obligations and to make changes to the initial wording of articles 16 and 32 of Law no. 15/2013 of 8 February – this law establishes the legal framework that applies to operating as an estate agency. Decree-Law 102/2017 transfers the power to validate estate agency contracts with general contractual terms and conditions from the Directorate-General of the Consumer (Direção-Geral do Consumidor – DGC) to the Institute of Public Markets, Real Estate and Construction (Instituto dos Mercados Públicos, do Imobiliário e da Construção, I. P. – IMPIC). The Decree-Law also establishes that this obligation is one of simply depositing the form when the form of estate agency contract «to be approved by ministerial order» is used.