OPINIONby Peter Mericka B.A., LL.BReal Estate LawyerQualified Practising Conveyancer VictoriaDirector Lawyers Real Estate Pty Ltd As an investment adviser Enzo Raimondo, CEO of the Real Estate Institute of Victoria is the last person a property purchaser should listen to. In his most recent article “Buyer’s agent a sound investment” in the Domain section of The Age newspaper Saturday 17 January, 2009, Raimondo is quite dishonest with readers as he misstates the law on purchaser...
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Opinion by Neil Jenman Consumer Advocate For many years, the Real Estate Institute of Victoria (REIV) has misled and deceived real estate consumers. Whether it be trying to justify (or deny) dodgy practices such as false price quoting or whether it’s brushing-aside common claims of widespread dishonesty, as far as real estate bodies go, they don’t come much dodgier than Victoria’s Real Estate Institute (REIV). The institute is headed-up by Enzo Raimondo (who...
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OPINION by Peter Mericka B.A., LL.B Real Estate Lawyer Qualified Practising Conveyancer Victoria Director Lawyers Real Estate Pty Ltd I have been very critical of the underhanded approach taken by the Real Estate Institute of Victoria (REIV) in designing the new standard form Contract of Sale of Real Estate so as to create an even more deceptive document than the old Contract Note. To put my money where my mouth is I have...
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OPINIONby Peter Mericka B.A., LL.BReal Estate LawyerQualified Practising Conveyancer VictoriaDirector Lawyers Real Estate Pty Ltd The new Contract of Sale of Real Estate prescribed by the Estate Agents (Contracts) Regulations 2008 was supposed to end the dodgy practice of estate agents withholding terms and conditions from purchasers, but it hasn’t. The document designed by the Real Estate Institute of Victoria (REIV) allows estate agents to trick purchasers into believing that they have received “the...
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OPINIONby Peter Mericka B.A., LL.BReal Estate LawyerQualified Practising Conveyancer VictoriaDirector Lawyers Real Estate Pty Ltd The document known in the real estate industry as “the standard REIV Contract Note” has been banned. As from 28 September, 2008 the only document available to estate agents will be the standard form of contract prescribed by the Estate Agents (Contracts) Regulations 2008 or a contract prepared by a Legal Practitioner or a Licensed Conveyancer. Contract Note –...
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OPINIONby Peter Mericka B.A., LL.BReal Estate LawyerQualified Practising Conveyancer VictoriaDirector Lawyers Real Estate Pty Ltd Geoff Thompson is the Director of Barry Plant Real Estate in Croydon Victoria, and the Barry Plant Real Estate tag line is “The red carpet experience”. I felt that the red carpet had been pulled out from under me and my client when Geoff Thompson’s sales representative Pauline Ferguson switched contracts without my knowledge and without any explanation. Secret...
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Opinion by Neil Jenman Consumer Advocate Victoria’s real estate industry is embroiled in another scandal. This time, the body at the centre of the scandal is the Real Estate Institute of Victoria (the REIV) and its CEO, Mr Enzo Raimondo. The REIV is an industry association whose members comprise around 80 per cent of the state’s 6,000 estate agents. The REIV’s purpose is to protect the interests of its member agents. One of its aims...
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OPINIONby Peter Mericka B.A., LL.BReal Estate LawyerQualified Practising Conveyancer VictoriaDirector Lawyers Real Estate Pty Ltd David Sowersby is the Director of Walshe & Whitelock Real Estate, Brunswick and an Associate of the Real Estate Institute of Australia. David Sowersby is also a “contract switcher”. Some years ago I pounced on Sowersby for “switching” contracts, and thought he had changed his ways. Unfortunately, it seems that when you’ve been in the industry as long as...
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by Peter Mericka B.A., LL.BReal Estate LawyerQualified Practising Conveyancer VictoriaDirector Lawyers Real Estate Pty Ltd Enzo Raimondo, CEO of the Real Estate Institute of Victoria, recently accused me of making comments that were “deliberately mischievous and untrue”. But when called upon to nominate any such statements or to provide the evidence, Enzo disappeared from the radar. Has he been gagged by the REIV? Allegations From Enzo Raimondo In my previous posting I took...
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by Peter Mericka B.A., LL.BReal Estate LawyerQualified Practising Conveyancer VictoriaDirector Lawyers Real Estate Pty Ltd There are few things more dangerous for real estate consumers than estate agents who fancy themselves as “wheelers and dealers”. They are usually the ones who cause the wheels to fall off real estate transactions, usually because one party or the other feels that they have been let down. Enzo Raimondo not only acknowledges that estate agents like to...
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