by Peter Mericka B.A., LL.BReal Estate Lawyer Qualified Practising Conveyancer VictoriaDirector Lawyers Real Estate Pty Ltd “Real Estate Agents Preying On Battlers” is the title of an article appearing on the ABC news website. I invite visitors to read the item for themselves, but it is a comment to this item that I find particularly interesting. Way down the list of 37 comments to the article is one by a contributor known as Rel. ...
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by Peter Mericka B.A., LL.BReal Estate Lawyer Qualified Practising Conveyancer VictoriaDirector Lawyers Real Estate Pty Ltd It is fitting that the logo of Max Brown Real Estate should depict the estate agent as a shadowy faceless figure, as it suggests the level of responsibility the estate agent assumes when “advising” vulnerable consumers. By the time the consumer realises that he or she has received dodgy advice, the estate agent has melted back into the...
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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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OPINIONby Tim O’Dwyer M.A., LL.BSolicitorConsumer Advocate watchdog@argonautlegal.com.au The simple answer to the above question is no. But I guess many of us will, from time to time, act for both parties in conveyancing transactions. And, frankly, many of us will continue to do so until the governments in our various states and territories legislate against this practice to properly protect conveyancing consumers. Our professional and industry bodies may skirt around the edges with cautious...
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OPINIONby Tim O’Dwyer M.A., LL.BSolicitorConsumer Advocate watchdog@argonautlegal.com.au A junior journalist had a couple of questions about my paper “Should you act for both parties?” delivered at the Australian Institute of Conveyancers National Conference. “What’s conveyancing?” he asked. “And what’s the difference between conveyancers and solicitors?” A pre-conference media release had assumed – mistakenly – that everyone knew conveyancing was the contract preparation, professional advice, negotiation, documentation and searches involved when you buy or sell...
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