Checking that an estate agent is actually licensed

AMI attaches to the mediation business, not to the salesperson

The AMI is the licence number of a real estate mediation company, issued under Lei n.º 15/2013, the regime governing access to and exercise of the mediation activity. The number identifies the licensed entity. It does not identify the person showing the house, and it says nothing about their individual training, experience or conduct.

That distinction decides what the number proves, because a licence number printed on a business card or at the bottom of a portal listing is only useful once it has been matched to the company on the register. A number on its own proves that somebody typed a number.

The register is public and the search takes a minute

The public register is searchable through the gov.pt service Pesquisar uma empresa de mediação imobiliária, which queries IMPIC's database directly. The search accepts any of four things:

• the company name;
• the licence number;
• the company's tax number;
• the municipality or district of the registered office.

What comes back is the licence and its status. The status is the part that matters, and it is the reason the register beats the number on the listing: a licence can exist as a number long after it has stopped being current, and a printed number carries no date.

Searching by municipality is the useful variant on an island. It returns the mediation companies registered in that concelho, which is a quick way to establish whether an agency presenting itself as a local Madeira firm is registered here at all.

The angariador imobiliário is the word that causes the confusion

An angariador imobiliário is a collaborator who sources listings and clients for a licensed mediation company. Angariadores are not separately licensed and hold no AMI of their own. They may only operate under a company that holds one.

The practical consequence is direct. A person presenting themselves as an independent agent, with no licensed company behind them, is not licensed to mediate. That situation is exactly what the register was built to expose. An introduction made informally carries no licence with it, which is why the question below is worth asking of anyone.

The right question to an individual is therefore not whether they are an agent. It is which licensed company they work under, followed by that company's number on the register.

Who regulates it

IMPIC, I.P., the Instituto dos Mercados Publicos, do Imobiliario e da Construcao, issues the licence and maintains the register. Its own FAQ on mediation is the plainest available description of what the licence permits and what falls outside it, and it beats any agency's account of its own obligations.

The exact article of Lei n.º 15/2013 that defines the angariador was not opened at source for this page. The status itself is confirmed by IMPIC's FAQ and by the gov.pt service description; the article number is the part left uncited rather than guessed.

What the check does not tell you

A current AMI confirms that the company may lawfully carry on mediation. It is not a quality rating, it is not a statement about a particular listing, and it says nothing at all about whether the property itself is sellable.

Whether the use licence exists, whether the energy certificate is in place, whether the rateable value on the caderneta predial is going to drive the tax above the price, and whether the title is registered clean, are separate questions answered by separate documents. Those are set out in the step-by-step buying guide, and the tax consequences in what it costs to buy in Madeira. A licensed agency can market a property with a defective use licence, and the register will still say the agency is licensed.

What this site is

Madeira Atlantic Property is a publisher and an introducer. It holds no AMI, carries on no mediation, represents neither buyer nor seller, and takes no part in negotiating a price.

Where a reader is introduced to a licensed agency, the licence to check on the register is that agency's, and the check described above is the one to run on them. Saying this plainly is cheaper than being asked.