According to §2 Paragraph 1 No. 10 of the Money Laundering Act, the real estate agent is to be regarded as an obligated party and is therefore subject to the provisions of the law. This mainly includes the obligation to identify and check the contractual partners. The obligation exists in the case of brokerage contracts that concern the brokering of a purchase contract, the brokering of rental contracts is excluded. The verification of the contract partner in accordance with the Money Laundering Act must be carried out before the written brokerage contract is signed.

The type of check depends on the contractual partner. With regard to the Money Laundering Act, a distinction is made between three groups of people: natural or legal person or beneficial owner. In any case, the real estate agent must record the contract partner's data and make copies of the identification documents. All documents must then be kept for five years.

The real estate agent must act in the event of suspicion: An example of a suspicion could be a cash purchase from abroad or an inflated purchase price. If there is justified suspicion and this is reported, business dealings with the customer concerned must be suspended for 48 hours. If there is no message from the public prosecutor's office within this period, the business process can be continued.