A visitor arrives on a real estate agency’s website, browses a few listings, and then tries to find out who is behind the digital storefront. They scroll down to the footer, click on “Legal Notices,” and land on a blank or incomplete page. Trust evaporates in seconds. For a real estate professional, this page is much more than an administrative formality: it is a legal foundation, a signal of credibility, and an element monitored by authorities.
Professional card and fee schedule: obligations specific to real estate
The legal notices of a standard website (identity, host, contact) apply to all professionals. A real estate agent adds specific requirements related to the Hoguet law and the regulations of the profession.
Further reading : Everything You Need to Know About Approved Doctors for Driving Licenses in Hauts-de-Seine
Have you noticed that some agency websites display a professional card number while others do not? This number, issued by the CCI, is mandatory. It certifies that the professional has the necessary financial guarantees and civil liability insurance to operate. Its absence on the site exposes one to sanctions.
Beyond the card, the fee schedule must be accessible with one click from any page of the site. The DGCCRF explicitly targets the digital platforms of real estate professionals in its checks since the end of 2023, with verification campaigns focusing on the display of fees and pre-contractual information. The observed shortcomings include the absence of a fee schedule or insufficient accessibility.
Further reading : Everything You Need to Know About Twin Birth Weight and Height: Guidelines and Tips
To see how this information is structured in practice, you can consult the legal notices of Welcome Immo and observe how each section meets a specific obligation.
Personal data on a real estate site: what the law requires beyond the cookie banner
A real estate agency’s site collects data at several levels: contact forms, valuation requests, email alerts, and sometimes virtual tours or electronic signatures. Each collection point generates transparency obligations.
The legal notices page must specify the purposes of each data processing. An “Estimate my property” form and an “Arrange an appointment” form do not serve the same objective. Grouping all processes under a generic phrase is not sufficient under the GDPR.
For agencies offering advanced digital services (virtual tours, electronic signatures), an additional layer is added: it is necessary to indicate in the legal notices or the T&Cs the name of the technical provider used, the location of data hosting, and the level of signature qualification (simple, advanced, qualified). This requirement remains unknown to many agencies.
- Identity and contact details of the data controller (the agency’s manager, not the webmaster)
- Legal basis for each processing: consent for email alerts, legitimate interest for contact management, legal obligation for the retention of mandates
- Data retention period, which varies according to the type of file (prospects, clients under mandate, former clients)
- Contact details of the data protection officer if the agency has appointed one, or if not, the contact for exercising access and deletion rights
Omitting this information can lead to a formal notice from the CNIL, with publication of the name of the offending agency in the most serious cases.
Sanctions and controls: what a non-compliant site risks
The law for trust in the digital economy (LCEN) provides for criminal sanctions for the absence of legal notices on a professional site. For an individual, the penalty can be up to one year in prison and a fine. For a legal entity, the fine is multiplied.
Why is this risk higher in real estate? Because controls accumulate between several authorities. The DGCCRF checks commercial compliance (fees, pre-contractual information). The CNIL oversees the personal data aspect.
For agencies affiliated with the FNAIM, a third layer is added: since the update of the federation’s code of ethics and deontology in 2022, the visible display of membership in the consumer mediation body and the link to it is required, under penalty of internal disciplinary sanctions. A real estate site is therefore exposed to three levels of simultaneous control, making the completeness of the legal notices even more strategic.
Writing reliable legal notices for a professional real estate site
Rather than copying a generic template found online, a real estate professional benefits from constructing their legal notices section by section, starting from their actual situation.
- Complete identification: name or business name, registered office address, SIRET number, VAT number, contact email and phone
- Regulated information: professional card number issued by the CCI, name of the financial guarantor, professional civil liability insurance certificate with the insurer’s name
- Hosting: name of the website host, its address, and phone number
- Data protection: identity of the data controller, detailed purposes, legal bases, retention periods, methods for exercising rights
- Mediation: name of the mediation body and direct link to its site, in accordance with the consumer code
Each section corresponds to a distinct legal obligation. Forgetting one does not invalidate the others, but exposes the agency regarding the missing point.
One last often-overlooked point: the legal notices must be updated with every change (new guarantor, change of host, modification of the professional card). A page written at the time of the site’s creation and never updated becomes a silent legal liability, which only reveals itself at the time of a check or a dispute with a client.