California Business and Professions Code 10026 – (a) The term “advance fee,” as used in this part, is a fee, …
(a) The term “advance fee,” as used in this part, is a fee, regardless of the form, that is claimed, demanded, charged, received, or collected by a licensee for services requiring a license, or for a listing, as that term is defined in Section 10027, before fully completing the service the licensee contracted to perform or represented would be performed. Neither an advance fee nor the services to be performed shall be separated or divided into components for the purpose of avoiding the application of this division.
(b) For the purposes of this section, the term “advance fee” does not include:
Terms Used In California Business and Professions Code 10026
- advance fee: as used in this part , is a fee, regardless of the form, that is claimed, demanded, charged, received, or collected by a licensee for services requiring a license, or for a listing, as that term is defined in Section 10027, before fully completing the service the licensee contracted to perform or represented would be performed. See California Business and Professions Code 10026
- business opportunity: shall include the sale or lease of the business and goodwill of an existing business enterprise or opportunity. See California Business and Professions Code 10030
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). Source: OCC
- license: means license, certificate, registration, or other means to engage in a business or profession regulated by this code or referred to in Section 1000 or 3600. See California Business and Professions Code 23.7
- Licensee: means any person authorized by a license, certificate, registration, or other means to engage in a business or profession regulated by this code or referred to in Sections 1000 and 3600. See California Business and Professions Code 23.8
- listing: as used in this part includes, but is not limited to:
California Business and Professions Code 10027
- Subdivision: means a subdivision of the section in which that term occurs, unless some other section is expressly mentioned. See California Business and Professions Code 15
(1) “Security” as that term is used in § 1950.5 of the Civil Code.
(2) A “screening fee” as that term is used in § 1950.6 of the Civil Code.
(3) A fee that is claimed, demanded, charged, received, or collected for the purpose of advertising the sale, lease, or exchange of real estate, or of a business opportunity, in a newspaper of general circulation, any other written publication, or through electronic media comparable to any type of written publication, provided that the electronic media or the publication is not under the control or ownership of the broker.
(4) A fee earned for a specific service under a “limited service” contract. For purposes of this section, a “limited service” contract is a written agreement for real estate services described in subdivision (a), (b), or (c) of Section 10131, and pursuant to which such services are promoted, advertised, or presented as stand-alone services, to be performed on a task-by-task basis, and for which compensation is received as each separate, contracted-for task is completed. To qualify for this exclusion, all services performed pursuant to the contract must be described in subdivision (a), (b), or (c) of Section 10131.
(c) A contract between a real estate broker and a principal that requires payment of a commission to the broker after the contract is fully performed does not represent an agreement for an advance fee.
(d) This section does not exempt from regulation the charging or collecting of a fee under Section 1950.5 or 1950.6 of the Civil Code, but instead regulates fees that are not subject to those sections.
(Repealed and added by Stats. 2010, Ch. 85, Sec. 2. (AB 1762) Effective January 1, 2011.)