Appointing a buyer's agent in Queensland: what Form 6 must contain

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Kooky

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

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The relationship between a buyer and a buyer's agent begins with a government form. Before the first shortlist is sent or the first inspection is booked, Queensland law requires the two of them to sign a written appointment, and it prescribes the form to use. For residential property it is the Residential agent appointment or reappointment, known across the industry as Form 6.

Sellers meet Form 6 when they list a home, and most of what is written about it is written for them. A buyer who engages an agent signs the same form from the opposite side, and several of its entries mean something different in that position. This guide reads the appointment as a buyer would: why it exists, which version applies, what each part must state, how fees and outside benefits are recorded, how long it runs, how it ends, and what it does not do. It explains the rules in general terms. The Queensland Government's own guidance recommends independent legal advice before signing, and nothing here replaces that.

Queensland Government guidance on appointing a real estate buyer's agent; Office of Fair Trading pages on appointments and on breaches and penalties, the latter updated 1 July 2026.

Why the form comes first

The Office of Fair Trading states the rule without qualification: a property agent cannot provide services to a client until appointed in writing. Its description of Form 6 repeats the point, saying the form must be given to the client before the agent performs any property agent services.

The rule exists to remove a familiar kind of dispute. Without a written appointment, an agent and a client can end up with different recollections of what was agreed: which services, at what fee, payable when. The Property Occupations Act 2014 deals with that by making the written appointment a precondition of the work, and the Office of Fair Trading's list of breaches includes acting without one, with a maximum penalty of $34,540.

For a buyer the practical meaning is that a conversation is not an engagement. An agent who is properly observing the rule will not begin searching, will not attend an inspection on the buyer's behalf and will not open a negotiation until the form is signed. A buyer who has not signed has not appointed anyone, however many properties have been discussed.

Form 6 or Form 6A

Two forms exist. The Queensland Government's page on appointing a real estate buyer's agent lists them both: the Residential agent appointment or reappointment, Form 6, and the Commercial agent appointment or reappointment, Form 6A.

The choice follows the property, not the client. A person buying a house or a unit, to live in or to rent out, is buying residential property, and Form 6 applies whether they describe themselves as a home buyer or an investor. A purchase of a shop, an office or a warehouse uses Form 6A. An investor whose brief covers both would need the appointment to reflect that.

Both forms are published by the Office of Fair Trading and are the approved documents for the purpose. An agency may attach its own terms and conditions, and many do, but the approved form is the core, and additional pages cannot remove what it is required to state.

Who is named on it

The form identifies two parties, and each name deserves a moment's attention.

The first is the client. If two people are buying together, both are clients and both sign. If the purchase is to be made by a company or a trust, the client is that entity, acting through its director or trustee. The name on the appointment should be consistent with the name that will eventually appear on the contract of sale, because the agent's authority comes from the person or entity that appointed them.

The second is the agent. The appointment is made with a licensee, which may be an individual holding a real estate agent licence or a company holding a corporate licence. The Office of Fair Trading's public register allows a client to confirm that the licensee named on the form holds a current Queensland licence. A registered salesperson may be the person who does the day-to-day work, but a salesperson can only work as an employee, so the appointment is with the licensed agent who employs them.

Since 1 July 2026 this first meeting has acquired another step. Real estate businesses, buyer's agents among them, are now subject to federal anti-money-laundering law, and the Real Estate Institute of Queensland advised its members in June that a buyer becomes a buyer's agent's customer for those purposes from the appointment itself. In practice that means an identity check at about the time Form 6 is signed.

The services and their limits

The Government's guidance lists what the form must state, and the first item is the services the buyer's agent will provide and any limits or conditions on them.

This is the entry that turns a general idea into a defined job. For a full engagement it describes a search: finding properties that fit the client's brief, inspecting and assessing them, and negotiating a purchase. For a narrower one it might read as negotiation of a single named property, or bidding at a particular auction. The same guidance describes the range of work a buyer's agent can do as finding suitable properties, negotiating with the seller, doing background checks on the property and area, and bidding at auction.

The limits and conditions are where a buyer's own instructions belong. The area to be searched, the type of property, and above all the price range can be recorded here or in an attached brief. Their legal weight comes from the conduct rules. Section 22 of the Property Occupations Regulation 2014 requires an agent to act in accordance with a client's instructions unless it would be unlawful. An instruction that is written down is one that can later be pointed to.

Two limits are worth writing with care. One is the price authority: the most the agent may offer or bid without coming back to the client. The other is what the agent may and may not do on the client's behalf, for example whether the agent may make offers, or must refer each one for approval.

Single or continuing appointment

The Office of Fair Trading describes two kinds of appointment. A single appointment is for one-off services. A continuing appointment is for ongoing services, and the examples the regulator gives are rentals and property management.

Most engagements of a buyer's agent are single appointments in substance: one client, one purchase. An investor who intends to buy several properties over time may be offered something broader. The distinction matters because it affects how the arrangement ends. A single appointment finishes when its purpose is achieved or its end date passes. A continuing one runs until someone ends it.

A buyer who wants one property bought should see one purchase described. If the form is drafted to cover any number of purchases over an open period, that is a wider commitment than a single search, and the fee entries need to be read in that light.

Fees, expenses and when they fall due

The second and third items the Government's guidance requires are all commissions, fees and expenses for the agent's services, and the due date for paying them.

Queensland does not regulate the amount. The Office of Fair Trading's guidance on commission says it sets no limit and that an agent is free to negotiate with the client. It does set rules about how the figure is written. The commission is to be agreed in writing at the time of appointment and cannot be altered afterwards. It is to include GST, and the appointment should clearly say so. The form is to set out whether an amount remains payable if a sale does not proceed, and in which circumstances. And the appointment must not contain unfair contract terms.

For a buyer's agent's fee, which is usually paid in stages, the due dates carry most of the meaning. A typical arrangement has an engagement fee payable on signing and a larger fee payable when a contract becomes unconditional or settles. The form should make each stage a separate line with its own trigger. The Real Estate Buyers Agents Association of Australia said in June 2026 that a typical engagement fee is between $1,000 and $5,000, with the majority of the fee due only on a successful purchase; that is the association's description of practice among its members, not a legal requirement.

Expenses are a separate entry. If the client is to reimburse travel, data reports or any other cost on top of the fee, the form is where that is agreed. An expense that does not appear there has not been authorised.

Benefits from anyone else

The Office of Fair Trading's guidance on appointments adds an entry that matters more to buyers than to sellers: the form must disclose any financial benefit the agent expects to gain from a third party.

For a selling agent this usually means a rebate on advertising. For a buyer's agent it goes to the nature of the service. A buyer's agent is paid by the buyer to act in the buyer's interest. If the same agent stands to receive a commission from a developer, a project marketer or a selling agent when the client buys a particular property, the client is entitled to know before agreeing to anything.

Two other rules reinforce the entry. The Office of Fair Trading's guidance on disclosing interests requires a property agent to tell a prospective buyer, in writing, about any third party the buyer is referred to, the relationship between them and the benefit involved, and it gives mortgage brokers and inspectors as examples. And section 18 of the Property Occupations Regulation bars an agent from accepting an appointment at all if it would place the agent's duty or interests in conflict with the client's.

The term, exclusivity and how it ends

A seller's appointment has a well-known ceiling. The Office of Fair Trading's guidance sets a maximum of 90 days for a sole or exclusive agency to sell one or two residential properties. That limit is written for selling. The Government's page for buyers does not mention a maximum term for a buyer's agent's appointment, so the end date is whatever the two parties write.

What the buyer's page does set out is the way out. Either the buyer or the agent may cancel the appointment by giving a minimum of 30 days' notice, or less if both agree.

The same page attaches a warning. A buyer who ends an appointment before the agreed end date may be liable for commission or for damages for breach, depending on the terms. And a buyer who appoints a second agent while the first appointment is still on foot risks owing two fees for one purchase. The conduct rules place a matching duty on agents: section 21 of the regulation requires an agent to find out whether a client already has an existing appointment before accepting a new one, and not to solicit an appointment that would expose the client to double commission unless the risk is disclosed in writing.

Exclusivity is the related question. Many buyer's agents ask the client not to engage another agent, or not to buy independently, during the term. Whether a fee is payable if the client finds and buys a home on their own while the appointment runs depends entirely on what the form and its attached terms say. It is the buyer's equivalent of the seller's choice between a sole and an exclusive agency, and it deserves the same attention.

Reappointment and changes along the way

The title of Form 6 includes the words "or reappointment" for a reason. When an appointment reaches its end date and the search is not finished, the same form is used to extend it. The Office of Fair Trading's guidance says a single appointment may be renewed within 14 days before its expiry date, using the reappointment section. An extension is therefore a fresh decision made near the end of the term, not something signed on the first day.

Changes during the term follow the same logic as the original. Because the commission cannot be altered after the appointment is made, a real change to the fee or to the scope of the job calls for a new or amended appointment that both parties sign. A buyer who doubles the budget, moves the search to a different city or decides to buy two properties has changed the job the form describes.

Signing, copies and advice

Both parties sign the appointment. The Office of Fair Trading's guidance says the agent must give the client a copy and keep one. The Government's page for buyers puts it from the client's side: the agent should provide a copy.

The copy is the buyer's record of everything discussed above, and it is the document any later disagreement will turn on. The Government's guidance on resolving problems with a buyer's agent starts with a written complaint to the agent, moves to the Real Estate Institute of Queensland if the agent is a member, and ends with a formal complaint to the Office of Fair Trading. At each of those stages the first thing anyone will ask to see is the form.

The guidance also recommends independent legal advice before signing. The appointment is a contract, often with the agency's own terms attached, and a solicitor reads it for the matters a buyer may not think to look for.

What the form does not do

It helps to be clear about the edges of the document.

Form 6 is not the contract to buy a property. That is a separate contract of sale between the buyer and the seller, usually in the standard form published by the Real Estate Institute of Queensland and the Queensland Law Society, and the buyer's solicitor or conveyancer advises on it.

Form 6 does not by itself hand over the buyer's signature. It appoints the agent to provide the services it lists. Whether the agent may commit the buyer to a purchase, by signing a contract or by bidding at an auction where the fall of the hammer is binding, depends on the authority the buyer gives, and that authority should be explicit and in writing.

Form 6 does not guarantee an outcome. It records services, not results. A promise that a property will perform in a particular way is not something the approved form asks for, and industry bodies warned consumers in June 2026 to be cautious about performance guarantees of any kind.

And it does not replace the licence. A signed form does not turn an unlicensed person into a buyer's agent, which is why the register comes before the paperwork.

A buyer's agent's promises are made in conversation. Their obligations are the ones written on the form, and it is the form that both sides can later point to.

Kooky, from Shaka

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

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