Misleading Conduct By A Real Estate Agent
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A couple who spent nearly $1 million on a Hawthorne property are suing the real estate agents and vendor, claiming that the property was advertised falsely and alleging misleading conduct by the real estate agent.
Malcolm and Samantha Stevenson have taken agency Bekdon Richards and vendor Tony Burchill to court, claiming losses and damages of over $178,000 after purchasing a two bedroom Victorian-style home in February 2014. In a statement of claim lodged last month with the Federal Circuit Court, the couple, who paid $960,000 for the Linda Crescent house, alleged the agency’s ads represented the land size as 490 square metres.
However, the true block size is 431 square metres, according to court documents. “If, before entering into the contract of sale, the applicants had known that the true land size area of the property was 431 square metres, the applicants would not have entered into the contract of sale,” court documents said.
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4 Comments
Dear Sir/Madam,
Good day to you. I would like to seek your advice for this incident.
I purchased an apartment named C3 amounting AUD549,000 in 2014 located in Victoria Street, Brunswick, Melbourne. This was through a real estate agency, APAD promoting this property in Penang, Malaysia (working hand in hand with Newbob). I was told during that time that we can have a definite loan for this property as the rental fetched for Australia properties is more than enough to cover my installment, therefore there’s no way a bank would reject the application. Upon signing the sales & purchase agreement, this was again reassured by the lawyer while trying to hide the loan description portion in the agreement from us.
Now that’s it’s near project completion, the developer, Bensons property group is urging for settlement. I came to realize that I am unable to obtain a loan due to lacking of strong financial background. Here comes a shocking news from the lawyer that my 10% deposit paid will be forfeited and I will be sued for the unpaid portion. They will have to resell my unit to others under market value if necessary, and I have to fork out the shortage.
I also came to know that I am not the only victim but there are numbers of them in Malaysia who are facing the same problem now. Unlike before, the agents, lawyer and developer changed their attitude towards foreign investors who failed to secure a loan. They are still going around Malaysia and Singapore to implement this tactic to innocent foreign investors who are not familiar with purchasing Australia properties.
I hope you can advise me the next step to go about to counter this situation, or refer me to the right authority who would handle this case best. We are hoping to recover our hard earn money from dishonest corporate.
Thank you.
That’s your problem as you never got your finances in order before purchasing, I hope they do sue you! Why would you buy anything without first getting your finance approved? You are unbelievable to blame them!
Contact Victoria consumer affairs. https://m.consumer.vic.gov.au/contact-us/resolve-your-problem-or-complaint/estate-agent-complaint
I attended an auction at Hoppers Crossing. I was actively bidding and all of a sudden the bid ended up in a hammer in favour of the other person without giving enough time and notice. I was still bidding and yet agent tell me its too late only after a few seconds! First time I’ve encountered such bidding.