How to check that an estate agency is legitimate

What the AMI licence is and who issues it

AMI stands for Atividade de Mediação Imobiliária, property mediation activity. It is the licence that authorises a company to broker the sale, purchase or letting of other people's property in Portugal. It is issued and supervised by IMPIC, the Institute for Public Procurement, Real Estate and Construction. The regime governing the activity is set out in Lei 15/2013.\n\nThe licence belongs to the company, not to the individual. To obtain it, the company must show that those running it meet fitness requirements and must take out professional liability insurance covering damage caused in the course of the activity. That insurance is mandatory and must be current, not merely to have existed at some point.\n\nThe law also requires the AMI number to be visible: on documents, in advertising, in listings and at the premises. An agency that displays the number nowhere is not being discreet, it is in breach. That is the first signal, and checking it costs nothing.

How to check, step by step

Ask for two things in writing, preferably by email: the AMI number and the company's tax number. Then search the public register of mediators on the IMPIC portal, which lets you search by licence number, by registered company name or by tax number. The result tells you who holds the licence and what its status is. A suspended or cancelled licence shows up as such.\n\nThe point most people miss is identity. Many agencies operate under a well-known franchise brand, but each office is usually an independent company with its own AMI licence. The brand on the window proves nothing about the entity that will hand you the contract. Confirm that the name in the IMPIC register is the same one that appears on the mediation contract, on the invoice, and on the bank details you are given.\n\nIf you want to go further, and it is worth it on any transaction of real value, obtain or consult the company's commercial registry certificate (certidão permanente). It shows the shareholders, who has authority to bind the company, and whether the company is active. Also ask for the liability insurance policy and check its expiry date.

The mediation contract: what it must contain

A property mediation contract must be in writing and signed, and it must state the agency's AMI licence. It should identify the parties, the property and any charges over it, the regime agreed (with or without exclusivity), the agreed remuneration and the moment it falls due, and the liability insurance. You are entitled to a signed copy. If you are not given one, insist before you proceed, not afterwards.\n\nFor a buyer, the practical point is this: the commission is owed by whoever engaged the agency. In the overwhelming majority of Portuguese transactions the seller engages the agency and the seller pays. If nobody asks you to sign anything, nobody can charge you anything. If you are asked to sign a mediation contract as the buyer, read it with extra care and understand exactly what is being sold to you, what it costs, and when it becomes payable.\n\nOne note on money. The deposit is not paid to the agency personally, nor into a private individual's account: it is paid to the seller identified in the property's documentation, against a signed promissory contract, by traceable means, with a receipt. Any departure from this pattern requires a written explanation before the transfer leaves your account.

Agent, agency and credit intermediary are not the same licence

The person who opens the flat door for you is typically an angariador imobiliário, a property agent. The agent does not hold an AMI licence of their own: they operate under the licence of the agency they are contracted to. So the right question is not \"do you have a licence?\", it is \"which company are you working for?\". Then you check the company.\n\nKeep credit brokerage separate too. Advising on, presenting or negotiating mortgage contracts is a distinct activity, subject to registration with Banco de Portugal as a credit intermediary. Banco de Portugal maintains a public register of those intermediaries. An agency can hold a flawless AMI licence and still not be authorised to broker your mortgage. If you are told they will \"take care of the financing\", check the Banco de Portugal register, or arrange the credit yourself directly with the bank.\n\nThis is one of the reasons why arriving at the market with credit already approved makes life simpler: it removes one dependency from the process, and it removes from the selling side any argument for pressing you with financing deadlines.

Warning signs

None of these signs proves fraud on its own. Two or three together are enough to stop the process and ask for written explanations.\n\nThere is no AMI number anywhere, or the number given does not appear in the IMPIC register, or it appears as suspended or cancelled. They refuse to issue a written mediation contract, or promise it \"for later\". They ask you for a fee simply to view properties, or a buyer \"registration\" payment, with no signed contract supporting it. They ask for a reservation amount by transfer to a private individual's account, by instant payment to a personal phone number, in cash with no receipt, or by urgent international transfer.\n\nThey refuse, or keep postponing, showing the tax register extract (caderneta predial), the land registry certificate (certidão permanente) and the use licence (licença de utilização). There is no energy certificate and the listing does not state the class, which the law has required since Decreto-Lei 101-D/2020. The official contacts change mid-process, above all the bank details, and the change arrives by email. Pressure rises with artificial deadlines and another buyer who always appears at exactly the right moment. The listing photographs do not match the property they show you, or the price is clearly below everything else on the street.

If something goes wrong

Write everything down. Keep the listings (dated, with screenshots), the messages, the emails, the payment records and the contract. Without them, a complaint is one version against another.\n\nThe first formal step is the complaints book. Every agency must make it available in physical form at its premises and in electronic form. An electronic complaint goes straight to the sector's regulator.\n\nThe body that supervises property mediation and can open administrative proceedings is IMPIC, and that is where you file a complaint about unlicensed activity, advertising without an AMI number, or the absence of a written contract. If there are signs of fraud, misappropriation of a deposit or forged documents, that is a criminal matter and a complaint should be filed with the police or the public prosecutor. The two routes are not mutually exclusive: the regulatory complaint to IMPIC runs in parallel with the criminal complaint and with any civil action to recover the money.

Where to check the figures

• IMPIC, Instituto dos Mercados Públicos, do Imobiliário e da Construção (registo público de mediadores e licenças AMI)
• Livro de Reclamações Electrónico
• Banco de Portugal (registo de intermediários de crédito)
• ePortugal (certidão permanente do registo comercial)
• Diário da República Electrónico (Lei 15/2013, regime da mediação imobiliária)

We do not publish tax tables or percentages: they change with each state budget, and an out-of-date number on an agency's own site is a problem rather than a typo. The sources above carry the current value.