OPINION by Peter Mericka B.A., LL.B Real Estate Lawyer Qualified Practising Conveyancer Victoria Director Lawyers Real Estate Pty Ltd In my last blog posting I wrote about Consumer Affairs Victoria’s failure to address bribe induced corruption in the real estate and conveyancing industry. I concluded that posting by saying that I had written to Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV) again, drawing attention to my blog posting, and promising that I would publish CAV’s response. The response...
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by Peter Mericka B.A., LL.BReal Estate LawyerQualified Practising Conveyancer VictoriaDirector Lawyers Real Estate Pty Ltd After experiencing first hand the legal knowledge and reasoning of Mr. Robert Guthrie, Acting Manager, Licensing for the New South Wales Office of Fair Trading, I have written a comedy script for the ABC’s 7.30 Report. The script is based on a letter penned by Mr. Guthrie concerning the operations of Lawyers Real Estate. Lawyers Real Estate featured in...
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by George Rousos Director Industry Training Consultants george@itc.nsw.edu.au Statutory authorities must start exercising the same degree of care towards sellers as they do with buyers of properties. It was discovered and found on the NSW Office Of Fair Trading’s website, no cooling-off period applies to sellers of properties once contracts have been exchanged, sellers are generally bound to complete the agreement. (See the article “Sale Contracts” on the website of the...
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OPINIONby Tim O’Dwyer M.A., LL.BSolicitorConsumer Advocate watchdog@argonautlegal.com.au A Logan City (Queensland) couple, Jose and Maria, heard glowing reports from a Filipino friend of his negatively-geared property investments. After Jose and Maria showed some interest in making such investment themselves their friend helpfully arranged some introductions for them. Before long this pair of novice property investors found themselves signing contracts through an estate agent and financial adviser not only for the purchase of a block...
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by Tim O’Dwyer M.A., LL.BSolicitorConsumer Advocate watchdog@argonautlegal.com.au Once, when Queensland’s Premier Peter Beattie was planning a ministerial reshuffle, I offered him this advice: the Fair Trading portfolio, because of its appalling real estate regulation record, should be handled by his Attorney-General – or another legally-qualified minister. Beattie’s Chief of Staff replied: “The Premier does not consider it essential that Ministers have formal qualifications in the areas of their portfolio responsibilities. While there may be advantages in...
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