OPINION by Tim O’Dwyer M.A., LL.B Solicitor Consumer Advocate watchdog@argonautlegal.com.au What do you do when a property you have contracted to sell is damaged (by flood, fire or whatever) before settlement? What do you do if you are the buyer of that property? These critical questions arose for more than a few sellers and buyers across Queensland during the State’s extensive flooding of December 2010 and January 2011. A year later, with Queenslanders currently remembering...
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OPINIONby Tim O’Dwyer M.A., LL.BSolicitorConsumer Advocate watchdog@argonautlegal.com.au The blame for many uninsured property and financial losses resulting from floods and from Cyclone Yasi can be sheeted home to banks, building societies, credit unions and other lenders. Never mind the much-vilified insurance companies whose doubly-devastated policy-holders have found themselves not covered for flood or storm surge damage. While more than a few insurers may have failed to demonstrate any “utmost good faith” towards their policy-holders,...
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OPINIONby Tim O’Dwyer M.A., LL.BSolicitorConsumer Advocate watchdog@argonautlegal.com.au If a good Samaritan wants to buy you a property, watch out for any equitable strings attached! After Charles Irvine and Soozie Cooper met through an internet dating service in March 2006, they entered into a sexual relationship. Charles was a successful businessman while Soozie was less financially secure. She had a job, owned her home and was paying off a bank mortgage. Charles’ and Soozie’s relationship lasted...
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OPINIONby Tim O’Dwyer M.A., LL.BSolicitorConsumer Advocate watchdog@argonautlegal.com.au Several months after contracting to buy six beach resort units, as well as the resort’s management and letting rights, Fred Sutton had second thoughts about his company’s purchase. No matter that the seller company had already made some post-contract concessions: a price reduction on the rights contract, and extensions of time for finance and the completion date of both contracts. Each contract was conditional on the other,...
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OPINIONby Tim O’Dwyer M.A., LL.BSolicitorConsumer Advocate watchdog@argonautlegal.com.au What if sellers don’t ‘fess up if there’s no record of council inspections? They can sell regardless! What if a seller’s carport, garage or deck was built illegally? No selling worries! What if a home is termite-riddled? Don’t tell! And if sellers obtain a pre-sale building report showing heaps of problems? Don’t mention the report! This is why “buyer beware” is the first unwritten rule of real...
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OPINIONby Tim O’Dwyer M.A., LL.BSolicitorConsumer Advocate watchdog@argonautlegal.com.au Former corruption investigator Tony Fitzgerald QC and former premier Wayne Goss recently charged that Queensland’s Beattie and Bligh governments had let the state slide back into its “dark past”. “Ethics are always tested by incumbency”, explained Fitzgerald. “The longer any side of politics is in power, the more risk cobwebs will settle”, Goss added. Both agreed that standards had slipped during 11 years of Labor government –...
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Opinion by Neil Jenman Consumer Advocate Within an hour of reading this article another investor will almost certainly have been ripped off in another dud Queensland property deal. That’s how often it happens. While there is no official ‘Register of Rip Offs’, it’s not hard to work out the figures. Based on the number of sales made – especially to novice investors (often from interstate) – I estimate that a thousand people are...
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OPINIONby Tim O’Dwyer M.A., LL.BSolicitorConsumer Advocate watchdog@argonautlegal.com.au Harcourts real estate agent, Lester Drew, in a recent letter to the editor of Queensland’s Courier Mail criticised an earlier column in that newspaper about selling real estate. Drew pointed out in his letter (as published) that columnist Scott Pape was a financial advisor, was not a “registered member” of the Real Estate Institute of Queensland and was “not professionally qualified as deemed by the State Government...
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OPINIONby Tim O’Dwyer M.A., LL.BSolicitorConsumer Advocate watchdog@argonautlegal.com.au (Following on from “Licensed Conveyancer Corruption Must Be Stopped“, Tim O’Dwyer reports on a lawyer conveyancer’s attempt to attract referrals from real estate agents. Readers are also referred to Tim’s posting Catch 32 On Solicitors’ Independence regarding estate agent referrals to lawyers.) After the principal of a small suburban law firm sent an email touting his services to several real estate agents, one agent passed it on to...
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by Tim O’Dwyer M.A., LL.BSolicitorConsumer Advocate watchdog@argonautlegal.com.au After firing more than a few verbal bullets over recent months at Queensland’s Attorney-General (and Fair Trading Minister) Kerry Shine in The Courier Mail and Gold Coast Bulletin newspapers, on ABC radio and here in the Australian Real Estate Blog, I finally got a response (of sorts). The critical issues, of course, had been the largely unregulated role of legally unqualified real estate agents in the preparation...
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