When is a broker's commission due in Lebanon: at signing, at registration or when the buyer pays?

Also asked as: “When is the real estate agent paid in Lebanon?” · “Is broker commission due at the promise of sale or at the deed?” · “Article 293 Commercial Code broker fee” · “When do I pay the estate agent in Lebanon?”

What the law says#

Lebanese law treats brokerage as a contract. For a fee, the broker guides you to a chance to make a deal, or acts as go-between in the negotiation, and the general rules of agency apply^[1]. Article 293 of the Commercial Code says the broker earns the fee when the broker's work leads to the contract, meaning when the information he gave or the negotiation he ran results in the agreement.

The same article adds two details. If the contract only takes effect once a condition is fulfilled (a suspensive condition), the fee is due only when that condition is met. Any expenses you agreed to cover are owed even if no contract is ever signed^[1]. Article 293 ties the fee to the contract and says nothing about the moment the buyer pays the price.

Promise of sale, deed or registration: what the law leaves open#

A purchase in Lebanon runs in stages: a recent Land Registry extract, an optional promise of sale, the notarial deed, then inscription at the Land Registry. Ownership passes only on inscription^[4]. The Commercial Code does not say which of these stages is "the contract" that triggers the fee, and it does not address off-plan sales or sales conditional on registration^[1].

We found no court ruling or other published source that settles this. None of our sources covers whether you owe commission if you later sell directly to a buyer the broker introduced; that question has its own page, do I owe the broker if I sell another way. If a broker claims a fee at a stage you did not agree to, a Lebanese lawyer can tell you how courts in your area treat it.

The amount and who pays are also a matter of agreement#

The fee is set by agreement; a judge may reduce an excessive fee^[1]. No law fixes a rate or says which side pays, and we found no official tariff for real-estate brokerage. JSK Real Estate wrote in October 2018 that custom on a sale is 2.5% of the final price from each side^[2,3], with buyer and seller each paying their own agent, and the president of the brokers' syndicate REAL cited the same 2.5% in December 2015. Both sources are brokers, custom is not law, and we found no source after 2019 on whether the rate has changed, so ask the broker for the rate in writing. More in what commission brokers charge on a sale and who pays the broker.

For rentals of up to three years, JSK Real Estate (2018) describes the custom as one month's rent from each side^[2]. If an agreed fee is far out of line with the deal and the work done, a judge may reduce it^[1]. See challenging a broker's fee.

When a broker loses the right to the fee#

A broker loses any right to the fee, and to his expenses, if he works for the other party in breach of his duties to you, or gets that party to promise him a fee in bad faith^[1]. According to JSK Real Estate (2018), one agent acting for both sides is accepted in Lebanon. Article 294 removes the fee only where the broker acts for the other side against his duties or obtains a fee from them in bad faith. More in one broker for both buyer and seller.