---
name: terms-of-business-drafter
description: "Populate the agency's terms of business template with the deal specifics for a new instruction and stage it in DocuSign with the vendor as recipient. Built for use inside new-instruction; the operator does not invoke it directly. Owned by the compliance specialist."
---

# Terms of business drafter

A building-block skill called by `new-instruction`. Produces the terms document the vendor signs before any marketing begins.

## What it does

Reads the agency's terms-of-business template path from the profile, then populates it with:

- Property full address and tenure
- Vendor name(s) and contact details
- Fee structure (sole agency, multi agency, with-other-agents, or the agent's named variant)
- Fee amount or percentage
- Minimum fee where applicable
- Marketing period in weeks
- Withdrawal fee policy
- Notice period
- VAT inclusion and registration number
- CMP scheme membership, redress scheme membership, ICO registration (TPO code requires display)
- Effective date

The populated document is staged in DocuSign as a recipient envelope with the vendor as signatory. Nothing is sent until the operator approves.

## Compliance ground

The terms of business is the document the Estate Agents Act 1979 s.18 requires to be in writing before instruction is accepted. Failure to comply makes the contract unenforceable except by court order. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 fee transparency obligations also bear on this document. `compliance-flag-checker` runs against the populated draft before the operator sees it.

If the populated draft is missing any of the mandatory fields, the missing fields are listed at the top of the staged output so the operator can fill them before approving.

## What it does not do

- It does not send. Sending requires the operator's explicit approval.
- It does not amend the agency template. Template changes are made out-of-band.
- It does not negotiate fees with the vendor. The agreed fee is captured at the appointment.

## Connectors

Read: profile (template path, fee defaults), CRM (vendor and property records).
Write (staged only): DocuSign envelope creation.

## Profile keys

- `realagent.terms_template_path`
- `realagent.fee_structure.default`
- `realagent.fee_structure.minimum`
- `realagent.fee_structure.withdrawal_fee`
- `realagent.fee_structure.marketing_period_weeks`
- `realagent.compliance.cmp_scheme_membership`
- `realagent.compliance.redress_scheme`
- `realagent.compliance.ico_registration`