by Peter Mericka B.A., LL.BReal Estate Lawyer Qualified Practising Conveyancer VictoriaDirector Lawyers Real Estate Pty Ltd Michael Fry is an actor, turned estate agent with Nelson Alexander Real Estate. Recently Michael Fry performed an act that did not go down very well at all. After a real estate sale did not go as expected, Michael Fry took the contract and ripped it to bits, without consulting the vendor or the solicitor. When an estate...
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by Peter Mericka B.A., LL.BReal Estate Lawyer Qualified Practising Conveyancer VictoriaDirector Lawyers Real Estate Pty Ltd Continuing our theme on estate agents and their control over the contract stage of the sale transaction, the following is an extreme example of the way estate agents are empwered by their access to the contract, and how some will use that power to the detriment of all parties involved. David Falk is a real estate agent in...
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by Peter Mericka B.A., LL.BReal Estate Lawyer Qualified Practising Conveyancer VictoriaDirector Lawyers Real Estate Pty Ltd Many, if not most, lawyers and conveyancers play along with the pretence that it is the role of the estate agent to advise the purchaser and the vendor on contract law, and to prepare and execute the contract of sale on behaof of both parties. It would appear that lawyers and conveyancers have found that it is cheaper...
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by Tim O’Dwyer M.A., LL.BSolicitorConsumer Advocate watchdog@argonautlegal.com.au Solicitors, not estate agents, should prepare sales contracts. This is the view of the Gold Coast District Law Association which has called for Queensland to be brought into line with the long-established New South Wales practice whereby agents do not prepare or exchange contracts. Queensland Law Society president Megan Mahon agrees that real estate consumers “should be guided by professional legal advice at every stage”. “The (legal)...
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by Tim O’Dwyer M.A., LL.BSolicitorConsumer Advocate watchdog@argonautlegal.com.au Queensland’s Office of Fair Trading has lost, and lost badly, a landmark case mounted in the Commercial and Consumer Tribunal against Gold Coast solicitor Donald Dickie. The implications of this decision, which Fair Trading decided not to appeal, are likely to significantly affect residential property sales and conveyancing practices across Queensland. Attorney-General Kerry Shine, the Bligh Government’s minister responsible for the Fair Trading portfolio, may need to...
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