THE EYB COUNTRY GUIDES · Spain
Clarify what the broker can do, what you will pay and how the appointment can end.
Yacht broker agreement Spain is the document that should turn a conversation about selling or buying into a clear set of instructions. Start with the actual service and authority. Permission to advertise a boat is not a safe substitute for a defined power to agree terms, sign documents or receive money. The official provisions used here address mandate, commercial commission and consumer contracts within their respective scopes, rather than supplying a universal yacht appointment form.
This guide explains which questions to settle about the contracting parties, scope, payment and ending the appointment. Written schedules and approval checkpoints are practical recommendations. Where the legal category, disposal authority or a withdrawal charge is unclear, have a locally qualified lawyer review the draft before you agree it. For anything this guide does not cover, email us at info@europeanyachtbrokers.com for the latest information.
Key facts at a glance
Article 1713 limits a generally worded mandate to administration and requires express mandate to dispose of property, mortgage it or perform another strict ownership act. (BOE consolidation updated 3 January 2025.)
Boletín Oficial del Estado – Spanish Civil Code ·Article 1255 allows agreed terms and conditions that do not conflict with laws, morality or public order. (BOE consolidation updated 3 January 2025.)
Boletín Oficial del Estado – Spanish Civil Code ·For applicable consumer contracts, Article 60 requires prior disclosure of duration or termination conditions, including express permanence, exclusive-use commitments and termination penalties. (BOE consolidation updated 28 February 2026.)
Boletín Oficial del Estado – Consumer and User Protection Act consolidated ·Civil Code Article 1720 requires a mandatary to account for operations and pay the principal amounts received under the mandate. (BOE consolidation updated 3 January 2025.)
Boletín Oficial del Estado – Spanish Civil Code ·Article 1733 allows the principal to revoke a mandate and compel return of its evidencing document, within the mandate regime. (BOE consolidation updated 3 January 2025.)
Boletín Oficial del Estado – Spanish Civil Code ·Section 1
Identify the contracting business and describe the work you want it to perform. The Civil Code defines mandate, contrato de mandato, by work performed on another person's account or instructions. Its general and special forms have different scope. Those rules apply where the arrangement is a mandate; they do not determine every marketing or introduction agreement automatically. As a practical recommendation, separate advertising, arranging access, negotiating on instructions and any proposed authority to sign or receive money in the appointment document.
The mandate rules distinguish administrative wording from express authority for a disposal or another strict ownership act. Ask for qualified advice before assuming that a broad instruction to manage the sale allows the provider to transfer ownership. Record what needs your approval and who supplies it. If a company or several owners hold the craft, have the appropriate authority checked before the appointment is signed. Do not rely on a familiar contact's assurance that they can instruct on behalf of everyone involved.
An authority boundary is useful only if the parties understand it. The Civil Code prohibits a mandatary from exceeding the mandate. A practical approval schedule can therefore identify the decision, the authorised person and the evidence of approval. For a proposed price change, offer acceptance or payment instruction, state how your approval will be recorded. That schedule is not a prescribed national form. Keep it consistent with any separate power or sale document and obtain a locally qualified lawyer's advice when the documents appear to conflict.
Broker tip: List the proposed tasks and the decisions reserved to you before agreeing the appointment. Have any authority to dispose of the boat or sign on your behalf checked separately from ordinary marketing instructions. A related question is answered in our guide on how much yacht broker commission is in Spain.
Boat sale contract with a legal stamp.
Mandate role
Section 2
The Civil Code's contractual requirements and limits on agreed terms provide a starting point, while consumer law adds relevant information and clause standards where its scope applies. State the service clearly enough to distinguish a completed task from an ongoing obligation. As a practical recommendation, describe what material will be prepared, who approves publication and how enquiries will be handled. Avoid turning a general promise to help into an unsupported guarantee of a sale price or a buyer by a particular date.
For applicable consumer contracts, the prior information provisions address duration and termination, including permanence and exclusive-use commitments. Read the exclusivity clause as part of the whole appointment rather than as an isolated label. Ask what happens if you receive an enquiry yourself, change your instructions or work with another provider. The sources used here do not establish a uniform exclusivity period or a standard post-termination fee. Record the actual proposal and seek qualified advice where its operation or consequences are unclear.
Consumer clause standards require clarity and restrict references to texts that have not been supplied before or with the contract. Obtain the schedules, general conditions and payment terms before accepting the appointment. A practical version-control step is to keep the final document together with the approved attachments and the dated acceptance. If the provider revises the draft, ask for the changes to be explained. Do not assume an unseen webpage or a later email supplies the terms you already intended to accept.
Broker tip: Obtain every referenced schedule before agreeing exclusivity or duration. Keep the accepted version together and ask what happens to direct enquiries, changed instructions and outstanding work if the appointment ends. See also our guide on whether yacht brokers are regulated in Spain.
Signing a boat purchase agreement.
Contract requirements
Buying or selling a boat in Spain and want a second opinion? Speak to one of our brokers.
Section 3
Ask for the complete price information and payment event in the appointment. Applicable consumer law addresses the total price including taxes and charges or the determination method where advance calculation is not reasonably possible. Commercial commission has a scoped remuneration rule, but it does not establish a yacht-specific percentage. As a practical recommendation, name the payer, calculation basis and proposed trigger. Keep any purchase price paid for the boat distinct from the charge for the provider's services and from expenses you separately authorise.
Specify how additional work is approved before the provider incurs a cost. Within commercial commission, the Commercial Code addresses supported expenses and outlays. That does not prove a standard charge for photographs, travel or a survey. Ask for a quotation for the actual task and make clear whether it is included in the appointment price or separate. The guide supplies no unverified invoice total. Where tax treatment is uncertain, obtain transaction-specific advice rather than inserting a rate taken from another provider's service.
If the provider will receive money on your behalf, include a separate account and payment arrangement. The Civil Code mandate provision requires an account of operations and the transfer of amounts received under that mandate. It does not establish the protections or release terms of every account described as a client account. Ask who holds the money, how deductions are authorised and how you receive the records. Have any proposed custody or release provision reviewed on its own terms before a purchaser's funds are transferred. No official universal yacht-broker appointment form, exclusivity period or post-termination commission rule was verified. The legal category of the actual appointment and the extent of authority require transaction-specific review. For these, email us at info@europeanyachtbrokers.com for the latest information.
Broker tip: Keep the service fee, approved expenses and funds received for another purpose in separate schedules. Ask who authorises deductions and obtain a clear account rather than treating every receipt as the broker's remuneration. Readers often go on to our guide on what goes in a boat sale contract in Spain.
Broker and buyer shaking hands on a pontoon.
Consumer price disclosure
Article 60 requires total price information including taxes and charges or, where advance calculation is not reasonably possible, the determination method for applicable trader-consumer contracts. (BOE consolidation updated 28 February 2026.)
Source: Boletín Oficial del Estado – Consumer and User Protection Act consolidatedWithin commercial commission, Article 277 requires payment unless otherwise agreed and refers to commercial usage and practice for an amount not expressly agreed; no yacht-specific rate follows from this. (BOE consolidation updated 9 May 2023.)
Source: Boletín Oficial del Estado – Spanish Commercial CodeCommercial Code Article 278 requires payment of justified expenses and outlays with legal interest from expenditure until reimbursement within its commission regime. (BOE consolidation updated 9 May 2023.)
Source: Boletín Oficial del Estado – Spanish Commercial CodeCivil Code Article 1720 requires a mandatary to account for operations and pay the principal amounts received under the mandate. (BOE consolidation updated 3 January 2025.)
Source: Boletín Oficial del Estado – Spanish Civil CodeSection 4
Ending an appointment requires attention to notice and the legal category of the arrangement. The Civil Code allows revocation within its mandate regime and addresses return of the authority document. It also supplies a rule protecting specified third parties who have not been informed of revocation. As a practical recommendation, record the date and recipient of a withdrawal notice and obtain acknowledgement. Ask a locally qualified lawyer which people need notice before assuming that an instruction sent only to the broker resolves every outstanding authority issue.
The mandate rule for appointing a replacement connects revocation with notice to the previous mandatary, subject to the third-party provision. Keep the old and new appointments from overlapping unintentionally. Identify who can still communicate with interested buyers and who is responsible for returning documents, keys or approved material. These are practical arrangements to clarify, not a verified universal handover policy for brokers. Preserve the correspondence and the authority records so the actual position can be checked if a dispute arises later.
Commercial commission has its own revocation provision: notice does not erase the consequences of steps taken before the agent knew about it. That scoped rule should not be converted into a universal entitlement to commission after withdrawal. Review outstanding authorised work, expenses and any proposed fee against the actual documents. Request a final account and ask for explanations of disputed items before making assumptions. A locally qualified lawyer can assess the arrangement and events where the provider and client disagree about what remains payable.
Broker tip: Record withdrawal and acknowledgement clearly, and ask about outstanding authority, documents and funds. Coordinate any replacement appointment so the former provider and relevant contacts understand who is authorised to act. Our guide on whether to use a yacht broker or a dealer in Spain covers a related point.
Broker photographing a boat for sale.
Mandate revocation
Practical support
Peter Mattey is a yacht broker at European Yacht Brokers with a BA in Law. He is not a Spanish lawyer: for Spanish law and tax we refer you to a locally qualified adviser. What we can do is help you plan the transaction, put the right questions to the other side and spot gaps in the paperwork before you commit.
If you are buying or selling a boat in Spain, tell us about the boat and the area through the enquiry form on this page and a broker will reply. For anything this guide does not cover, email us at info@europeanyachtbrokers.com for the latest information.
The handover of a boat at the dock.
Your questions
Do not assume so: the Civil Code mandate rules distinguish administration from express authority for disposal and prohibit exceeding the mandate. Identify the actual role and have signing or disposal authority checked by a locally qualified lawyer. A practical appointment should separate marketing, negotiation and decisions reserved to the owner, and remain consistent with any separate power or sale document. (Boletín Oficial del Estado)
Where consumer information duties apply, the contract information must address duration, termination and express permanence or exclusive-use commitments. Ask how the actual clause handles direct enquiries, changed instructions and work with another provider. No uniform exclusivity period or standard post-termination fee was verified here. Obtain the referenced schedules before accepting the appointment and ask a locally qualified lawyer about unclear consequences. (Boletín Oficial del Estado)
Yes as a practical recommendation: separating them makes the actual appointment clearer. The Commercial Code provides a scoped supported-expense rule, while consumer law addresses total price information and the calculation method where necessary. Record which tasks you authorise and whether each cost is included or additional. The sources establish no standard yacht marketing package or tax percentage for your provider's invoice. (Boletín Oficial del Estado)
Within the Civil Code mandate regime, Article 1733 allows the principal to revoke it and require return of its evidencing document. Other provisions address notice to specified third parties and a replacement mandatary. Those rules do not settle every fee dispute or classify every broker agreement as mandate. Give clear notice, preserve acknowledgement and obtain qualified advice on outstanding authority and payments in the actual arrangement. (Boletín Oficial del Estado)
No within commercial commission: its revocation provision leaves the principal bound by the results of steps taken before the agent knew of revocation. The application depends on the appointment and events, not merely the yacht-broker label. Ask for a final account and identify outstanding work, funds and documents. Obtain locally qualified advice before assuming either that nothing remains payable or that every claimed amount is valid. (Boletín Oficial del Estado)
This guide only includes facts checked against official sources. For anything it does not cover, email us at info@europeanyachtbrokers.com for the latest information, and ask a locally qualified adviser to confirm the position for your own boat.
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Spanish Civil Code: mandate, contractual terms, authority, accounting and deposit rules.
Consumer and User Protection Act consolidated text: consumer scope, information, unfair terms and conformity.
Spanish Commercial Code: commercial commission scope, authority, accounting, fees and expenses.
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