What a Queensland Conjunction Agreement Must Include to Be Enforceable

You’ve found a buyer for a listing held by another agency and both principals are ready to sign. The commission is agreed in principle — but the moment the deal is done, you reach for your email records to prove your entitlement, because there is nothing else in writing. That is a dangerous position. Without a properly documented conjunction agreement, Queensland real estate agents routinely discover at settlement that their share of the commission is a matter of opinion rather than contract.

The conjunction agreement is the legal instrument that protects both agents in a co-agency arrangement. Getting it right — before the buyer’s offer goes in — is the standard every professional in this state should be working to.

What a Conjunction Agreement Actually Is Under Queensland Law

A conjunction agreement is a written contract between two (or more) agents or businesses who agree to work together on a specific listing or opportunity and share the commission or fee if it settles. In Queensland, the parties to that agreement are both licensed agents — the listing agent, who holds the authority from the vendor under the Property Occupations Act 2014 (Qld) (the POA), and the selling agent (also called the conjuncting agent), who introduces the buyer and typically works the buyer-side of the negotiation.

The Property Occupations Act 2014 defines an “associate” of a person to include a property agent who acts, for a sale of property, in conjunction with a property agent appointed under section 102 to sell the property. That statutory definition matters: it confirms that the Act contemplates and recognises the conjunction relationship, which in turn means both agents have obligations under the Act that run alongside whatever is agreed between themselves.

The conjunction agreement is not a vendor authority. It does not replace or modify the listing agent’s Form 6 appointment with the vendor. In many cases, the engagement with the principal should also be covered by a separate real estate agent agreement. The conjunction agreement then manages the relationship between agents. That distinction is fundamental. The conjunction agreement governs how two licensees divide the work and the reward — it does not create or modify the client-agent relationship on either side.

The POA does not prescribe a specific form for a conjunction agreement between agents. Unlike the vendor appointment (Form 6 or Form 6A), there is no mandated government form to use. The agreement is instead a private contract between two licensed professionals, which means it must meet the ordinary requirements of contract law — offer, acceptance, consideration, intention to be bound, and certainty of terms — while also sitting comfortably within the POA’s broader conduct framework.

The Conjunction Agreement Queensland Required Clauses: What Must Be in the Document

For a conjunction agreement in Queensland to be enforceable — meaning that either agent can rely on it in a dispute — the document must establish certain things with precision. Vague or implied terms are exactly what opposing counsel will exploit.

Identification of the Parties

Parties must be clearly identified by each agency’s legal names and ABNs. In practice, this means the agreement must name the licensed agency entity — the company or sole trader that holds the real estate agent’s licence — not just the individual salesperson’s name. Where a salesperson is arranging the conjunction on behalf of their principal licensee, that salesperson has no standing to contract in their own name.

The ABN of each business should appear. If one party is operating under a trading name, the document should capture both the registered entity name and the trading name. An agreement that names only “Bob Smith, Century XYZ Realty” without the legal entity details creates immediate ambiguity about who is actually entitled to payment.

Licence numbers are also worth including — both the agency licences and the relevant salesperson registration numbers of the individuals actively managing the deal. This detail is particularly useful if a dispute arises and either party needs to demonstrate that both sides were properly licensed to conduct the transaction under section 25 of the POA.

The Property

The scope of the agreement must define the property, project or opportunity the conjunction covers. For a single residential sale, this means the full street address and the lot on plan reference from the title. For off-the-plan or multi-lot transactions, each lot should be specified or the project described in sufficient detail that there is no question about which sale triggers the commission entitlement.

A common mistake is describing the property loosely — “the Smith family home at Paddington” — without the legal description. If the address changes during marketing (a street renumbering, a lot subdivision), or if multiple sales flow from the one introduction (as can occur in project sales), the vague description fails to protect either party.

The agreement should also specify the listing’s status at the time of execution: whether it is listed under an exclusive, sole, or open agency, and the term of that appointment. The term of a vendor appointment can be negotiated between the parties, up to a maximum of 90 days for an exclusive or sole agency. The listing agent’s authority end date affects how long the conjunction arrangement is live — a conjuncting agent should know whether they are working within a tightly constrained window.

Authority and Scope of the Conjuncting Agent’s Role

The agreement should confirm which agent holds the vendor authority and specify any limits on the other party’s role — for example, whether the conjuncting agent is limited to introducing buyers only, or whether they are also authorised to handle inspections and negotiations.

This clause is among the most practically important. If the conjuncting agent oversteps their defined role — negotiating directly with the vendor, representing to the buyer that they hold the listing — they risk creating an agency conflict that the listing agent or even the vendor may later rely upon to unwind commission obligations. Agents owe duties to act in the principal’s best interests, follow instructions and avoid conflicts. The conjunction agreement should support — not undermine — those duties.

The conduct standards in the Property Occupations Regulation 2014 (Qld) further reinforce this. That Regulation includes obligations around conflict of duty or interest, and around acting in accordance with the client’s instructions — both of which bear directly on how the conjuncting agent must conduct themselves in the transaction.

Specify clearly: can the conjuncting agent conduct open homes? Can they present offers directly? Are they to communicate with the vendor at all? Silence on these questions does not mean freedom — it means uncertainty when the deal turns contentious.

Commission Split

The commission split clause is the heart of the conjunction agreement, and it is where most disputes originate. Every enforceable conjunction agreement in Queensland must state the split in precise terms.

The agreement sets out who does what, how the commission is split, and when each party gets paid — so both agents can focus on winning the deal without arguments later.

There are several ways to express the split, each with advantages:

• A percentage of the total gross commission: “60% listing agent, 40% conjuncting agent”
• A flat dollar amount payable to the conjuncting agent from the commission
• A formula linked to the sale price: “0.5% of the contract purchase price, excluding GST”

Queensland practice most commonly uses percentage splits, typically expressed as a share of the total commission collected by the listing agency from the vendor. The agreement must state whether the split is calculated on the gross commission figure (inclusive of GST) or the net figure (exclusive of GST). Commissions in Queensland are inclusive of GST in accordance with the Property Occupations Act 2014. Ambiguity on this point regularly causes the quantum of the split to be disputed after settlement.

The agreement must also specify the trigger for payment — the event that makes the commission payable. Standard practice is to link payment to actual receipt of the commission by the listing agency from the vendor, not to the date of contract exchange or settlement of the sale. This protects the listing agent if the vendor withholds payment and ensures the conjuncting agent’s right to payment does not accrue until the funds actually arrive.

Timing and Mechanics of Payment

Beyond the commission split percentage, a well-constructed conjunction agreement includes a clause specifying when and how the conjuncting agent will be paid. This means:

• The maximum number of business days after the listing agency receives the commission within which the conjuncting agent must be paid
• The account to which payment will be directed (the conjuncting agent’s principal office trust account or nominated account)
• Whether payment is a direct disbursement from the listing agent’s trust account or a payment from operating funds post-disbursement

Under the Agents Financial Administration Act 2014 (Qld), which governs trust accounting for Queensland agents, the listing agent holds commission in trust until the conditions for release are met under the vendor’s appointment. The conjunction payment typically flows once that release condition is satisfied.

Agents should note that commission from a property sale can only be claimed once the sale completes — commission may only be claimed for actual amounts under the POA, which means no conjuncting agent can enforce payment of a split on a sale that does not settle.

What Happens if the Sale Falls Over

A frequently omitted clause, and one that saves significant grief: what are the agents’ obligations to each other if the contract falls through before settlement?

If the listing agent retains a deposit in whole or part (for instance, in a buyer default scenario), the conjunction agreement should address whether the conjuncting agent shares in that retained deposit, and in what proportion. If it is silent, the conjuncting agent has no contractual basis to claim a share of the forfeited deposit, even if they did the work that produced the buyer.

The agreement should also address the scenario where the sale is renegotiated after contract — a price reduction, an extended settlement, a change in conditions. If the commission is recalculated, is the split recalculated proportionally? These are not hypotheticals in Queensland’s property market; they are regular occurrences.

Survival and Termination

The agreement should include survival clauses — provisions that continue after termination — covering confidentiality, payment obligations, and dispute processes.

The typical conjunction scenario ends at settlement. But the obligations do not all expire then. The commission payment obligation survives settlement until it is discharged. The confidentiality obligation — particularly around the vendor’s identity, the buyer’s details, and the terms of negotiation — should survive indefinitely. Any dispute resolution clause must also survive termination, otherwise the parties lose their contractual process for resolving a dispute the moment the deal ends.

There is no prescribed duration for a conjunction agreement. It should remain in force for the period of the vendor appointment under which the conjunction arose, with appropriate survival terms extending beyond that point for obligations not yet discharged.

Dispute Resolution

Including a dispute resolution mechanism is not boilerplate — it is a practical necessity. The clause should specify:

• A process for written notice of a dispute
• A good faith negotiation period (typically 10 to 20 business days)
• Mediation as a next step before litigation
• The governing jurisdiction: Queensland

The entire agreement clause, governing law provisions, and the applicable state or territory should be expressly recorded. For a Queensland conjunction, that is Queensland law and the courts of Queensland. Do not leave this implied.

QCAT (the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal) can hear disputes between agents in certain circumstances, but a well-drafted conjunction agreement should give the parties a viable private resolution pathway before any tribunal or court process is triggered.

Execution: Signed Before the Offer Goes In

The most common deficiency in Queensland conjunction arrangements is not a missing clause — it is no signed agreement at all. Agents regularly proceed on the basis of a phone call, an email chain, or an informal understanding reached in the car park outside an open home.

As noted by REIQ, should parties use incorrect or incomplete documentation, they risk the appointment being invalid, which may cost the agent their commission in addition to particular rights and obligations for the parties. While that observation is made in the context of vendor appointments, the same risk logic applies squarely to a conjunction agreement: an unenforceable or non-existent agreement leaves the conjuncting agent entirely reliant on the listing agent’s goodwill.

The agreement should be signed by authorised representatives of both agencies before any buyer introduction occurs, or at the absolute latest, before any offer is submitted. Both parties must always sign the document. Electronic signatures are now widely accepted in Queensland commercial dealings following the Electronic Transactions (Queensland) Act 2001, and email execution with a clear signature block from both parties is generally sufficient — but the contemporaneous record should be retained.

Both parties should retain a signed copy. One signed original is not enough: if the listing agent holds the only copy and a dispute arises, the conjuncting agent is at a documentary disadvantage.

The Licensing Requirement Nobody Should Overlook

Every party to a conjunction agreement must hold a valid Queensland real estate agent licence — or be employed as a registered salesperson under a licensed principal — at the time the conjunction arrangement is entered into and throughout the period in which they perform work under it.

A buyer’s agent can enter into both a conjunction agreement and a buyer’s agency agreement for the same transaction — they are completely different instruments. However, both instruments require the parties to be properly licensed at all times. A conjuncting agent whose licence has lapsed, or whose registration is under suspension, cannot lawfully receive a commission for work performed during that period under Queensland law.

Interstate agents — including NSW, Victorian, and South Australian licensees — are not automatically entitled to receive a commission for referring buyers to Queensland properties without satisfying Queensland’s licensing requirements. The POA does not provide a general interstate recognition exemption for commission receipt, and an agreement with an unlicensed party to share commission may be unenforceable or expose the Queensland agent to regulatory risk.

What This Means for Queensland Agents

A conjunction agreement that will actually protect you in a dispute must do the following, without exception:

• Identify both licensed agency entities with their legal names, ABNs, and licence numbers
• Describe the property precisely, using the lot on plan reference
• Define the conjuncting agent’s scope of authority in the transaction
• State the commission split in unambiguous percentage or dollar terms, with clear GST treatment
• Specify the payment trigger — typically receipt of commission by the listing agent from the vendor
• Address what happens to a forfeited deposit if the sale does not complete
• Include survival and termination clauses that keep payment and confidentiality obligations alive past the end of the transaction
• Be signed by authorised representatives of both agencies before buyer introduction or before an offer is submitted

No amount of professional goodwill substitutes for a signed document. The conjunction split is not enforceable as a verbal arrangement in Queensland, and an email exchange — while potentially evidencing an implied agreement — creates expensive ambiguity about the precise terms agreed.

Before your next co-agency transaction, have a conjunction agreement template reviewed and ready. Execute it before the buyer walks through the door. That is the standard every Queensland agent working conjunction deals should hold themselves to.