Agency management and supervision

What an estate agent must put in place to run an agency lawfully: vicarious liability, office managers and section 15 supervision systems, licensing and interest declarations, property information and clients' money, personal data, anti-money laundering, debt collection, company, partnership and employment law, and complaints. Part 8 is EAQE-only and tested at Level 4, usually as a manager deciding what the firm must do.

Part I · Stand-alone questions9 min read9 sections

Checked against the Estate Agents Ordinance (Cap. 511), sections 36, 38 to 43 and 49; Practice Regulation (Cap. 511C), sections 8, 12 to 16 and Forms 1, 3 and 8 to 12; Estate Agents (Determination of Commission Disputes) Regulation (Cap. 511D); EAA Practice Circulars Nos. 07-02, 08-03, 08-04, 09-10, 12-02, 13-05, 15-01 and 23-01 (CR); Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (Cap. 486), sections 19 to 28, 35A to 35M, 64 and 65 and Schedule 1; Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance (Cap. 615), section 5A and Schedule 2; Companies Ordinance (Cap. 622); Partnership Ordinance (Cap. 38), sections 7 and 11; Employment Ordinance (Cap. 57); EAA, A Study Guide to Estate Agency Law and Practice, Part 8, paras 1 to 84; checked 11 Oct 2026.

Must-know for the exam

An employer is vicariously liable for an employee's wrongs done in the course of employment, even if forbidden or unknown; the employee stays personally liable too.
Every office needs its own manager holding an estate agent's licence (individual), controlling one office only (EAO s.38). Notify the EAA within 31 days on Form 10 (s.40).
Section 15 of the Practice Regulation needs a real system: procedures and resources, training, actual monitoring, and sanctions. Managers and supervisors can be disciplined, not just directors (Circular 15-01 (CR)).
Form 3 interest disclosure covers the signer, his nominee, spouse, parent, child, brother or sister, and the agency's employees, substantial shareholders, partners and directors (Circular 08-03 (CR)).
Data access and correction requests: comply within 40 days; send corrected data to third parties who received it in the previous 12 months (PDPO ss.19, 23).
Oral consent to direct marketing must be confirmed in writing within 14 days (PDPO s.35E). Selling a client list without consent: up to HK$1,000,000 and 5 years (s.64).
AML (Circular 23-01 (CR), effective 1 Jun 2023): CDD applies to buying and selling, not leasing; in dual agency both sides are customers; keep records at least 5 years.
A beneficial owner holds or controls, directly or indirectly, more than 25% of a corporate customer, or controls its management (AMLO Schedule 2).
Before using a debt collector: consider legal advice, notify the client in writing; stop at once on learning of a bankruptcy order (Circular 08-04 (CR)).
The EAA may decline a commission dispute over HK$300,000; both parties must agree to refer it, and appeal lies to the District Court within 14 days (EAO s.49; Cap. 511D).

On this page · 9 sections

Traps that cost marks

Thinking an employer is liable only for acts it authorised.
Reading section 65 of the PDPO as making the employer criminally liable for staff offences.
Treating everything an employee does as the employer's responsibility.
Thinking lack of knowledge is a defence; the statutory defence is practicable preventive steps.
Thinking a written prohibition always shields the employer.
Thinking supervisors below board level carry no personal section 15 responsibility.
Thinking key handling and opt-out lists are front-line matters, not management-system failures.
Using the salesperson form (Form 9) for a manager, or a 14-day deadline.

Why this matters in the exam

This is what makes the EAQE a manager's exam. The SQE asks what a salesperson must do; Part 8 of the EAQE asks what the firm must build so that every salesperson does it, and who is liable when one does not. Questions are typically set in a branch or head office: a manager writing a procedure, a director hiring staff, a firm sued for a salesperson's act.

Read every scenario from two angles: is the firm liable to the client (vicarious liability, PDPO s.65), and has a licensed estate agent breached a regulatory duty (EAO s.38, Practice Regulation s.15, the circulars)? Both can be true at once.

Vicarious liability and effective control

Employers are vicariously liable for an employee's wrongs done in the course of employment: acts authorised, or done for the purpose of and in connection with the job, even in a forbidden way. An independent contractor, who controls his own methods, is different. A salesperson who takes a cash deposit against office rules and absconds acts in the course of employment; one who damages a door helping a cousin move house on Sunday does not (Study Guide Part 8, paras 1–5). The PDPO (s.65) and the discrimination ordinances also treat staff acts as the employer's, with a defence if the employer took practicable steps to prevent them.

Duty	Rule	Source
Office managers	Each office under the effective and separate control of an individual with an estate agent's licence; one office each	EAO s.38
Prohibited employment	No unlicensed person as a salesperson	EAO s.39

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Estate Agents Qualifying Examination