Alabama: buyer-agreement requirements.

This page lists what Alabama requires, at the state level, before a licensee represents a buyer: who regulates real-estate licensees, whether a written buyer agreement is required by state law or rule, the statute or rule that says so, and whether the state mandates an agency-disclosure form or publishes an approved agreement form.

It is built for broker-owners and transaction coordinators who need the state rule in one place before setting office policy. Read it alongside your brokerage's own forms and your broker of record's guidance — the written-agreement question became a national practice issue in 2024, but the rule that binds you is your state's, and it is the state rule this page cites.

Alabama, field by field.

Regulating authority

Alabama Real Estate Commission (AREC)

Written agreement required by state law

Yes

Statute or rule

Ala. Code § 34-27-82(b), (c), (e), (g) — Real Estate Consumer's Agency and Disclosure Act (RECAD) — as amended by HB 230, 2025 Regular Session. Enrolled bill text read at alison.legislature.state.al.us (HB230-enr.pdf); § 2 of the act: 'This act shall become effective 30 days after the enactment of this bill.' Secondary reports refer to it as Act 2025-59 with an April 2025 effective date — we did not verify the act number or that date from a primary source.

Agency disclosure form

Yes — mandatory, and it is a single statewide form. § 34-27-82(c): the licensee 'shall provide a written disclosure form to a consumer for signature describing the types of brokerage services' available, and 'such disclosure must occur at least prior to a licensee providing any brokerage service, which includes a licensee showing a property as to a prospective buyer but does not include a seller's agent conducting an open house as to prospective buyers.' § 34-27-82(g): 'All real estate companies operating within the State of Alabama shall use the same agency disclosure forms,' and those forms 'shall be written by the Alabama Real Estate Commission.'

State-approved form available

Yes — mandatory use

Notes. Two separate rules, and operators conflate them. (1) AGENCY: § 34-27-82(b) — 'An agency relationship shall not be assumed, implied, or created without a written bilateral agency agreement establishing the terms of the agency relationship,' and 'in the absence of a signed brokerage agreement between the parties, the transaction brokerage relationship shall remain in effect.' (2) TIMING: § 34-27-82(e) — 'The consumer or customer may not be required to enter into a written brokerage agreement in order for a licensee to show a property to the consumer or customer,' but 'a written brokerage agreement is required prior to a licensee either listing for sale or submitting an offer on a property on behalf of a consumer, customer, or client for compensation.' Alabama draws its statutory line at the OFFER, not the tour. Your NAR-affiliated MLS draws it at the tour. Those are two different obligations and the stricter one governs what you actually do. The 2025 act also requires referral agreements between licensees to be in writing (§ 34-27-100(1)).