Do I owe a commission if my listing expires before the broker finds a buyer?

If a listing ends without a buyer, the broker has not been paid for results, but that does not settle whether anything is owed later. The answer sits in the agreement you signed, and in a few points of statute if you are in Ontario. Read the dates and the commission clause together.

The fee comes from the contract

The Trust in Real Estate Services Act, 2002 defines real estate to include businesses and says all remuneration payable to a brokerage for a trade in real estate must be an agreed amount or percentage of the sale price, or a combination of both. It does not set the amount or the trigger. The Act also says no action can be brought for remuneration unless the person was registered, or exempt from registration, when the services were rendered. Other provinces run their own regimes.

What to read in the agreement

Find the expiry date and then the clauses that refer to what happens after it. Treadstone Law, an Ontario law firm, describes a tail or holdover provision as one that typically obligates you to pay a fee if a buyer the broker actually introduced during the listing period buys the business within a defined period after the listing ends. Ask yourself whether a fee can still arise after expiry, for which buyers, and for how long. Ask whether the broker must give you a written list of the buyers it introduced. Our page on the broker tail period explains how those clauses work. Ask also whether the commission is tied to closing. BDC lists fees for professionals, including business brokers, among the costs you may have to pay when you sell a business.

If you list with someone else afterwards

Section 33(3) says that, unless you agree in writing, a brokerage cannot claim remuneration from you if it knows the business is covered by an unexpired listing agreement with another brokerage. Once the first agreement has expired, that provision does not stop a new brokerage from being paid under its own agreement. It does not cancel a fee clause in the old agreement that survives expiry, so ask each broker how the two interact.