"We’ll All Be Rooned", said Hanrahan

by Tim O’Dwyer M.A., LL.B Queensland Solicitor & Consumer Advocate watchdog@argonautlegal.com.au

Echos of the well-known poem about Irish-Catholic-bush-pessimist Hanrahan* came out of the Australian Capital Territory when The Canberra Times reported eleventh-hour alarm over the likely ruinous effects of anti-gazumping real estate and conveyancing reforms which were to come into force on July 1, 2004. *See full text of the poem The unethical, but not illegal, practice of “gazumping” ocurred particularly in the ACT and still does in New South Wales in a rising sellers’ market where a deal is made, but before legally-binding contracts are exchanged, the owner sells for more to someone else.

In 2003 one Canberra lawyer said gazumped buyers were caused “much heartache”, “financial detriment” and “emotional stress”.

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