Hot new Property and Stock Agents Regulation

1. To me the glaring omission in this “reform” is that no change seems to have been made as to how NSW Fair Trading enforces  compliance with the Act.

That is to say, before this “reform”, a complaint by Joe Public against a real estate agent (including a strata agent) required a complainant to:

A. Write to NSW FT by formally listing allegations of say misconduct or dishonesty, which are breaches of the Act under which the agent is licensed; and

B. Provide evidence to back the allegations.

NSW FT would consider the matter and decide if compliance action is needed, for instance:

(i) Directing the agent (strictly  speaking, licensee in charge) to further education; or

(ii) Sending the licensee in charge a warning letter; or

(iii) Fining the licensee in charge; or

(iv) Taking more serious steps.

The complainant would at no time be informed:

* If NSW FT took compliance action at all against the licensee and

* What if anything, the licensee said, wrote or inferred in reply to NSW FT.

Oh, and the agent could conceal the matter entirely from the OC, if he so chose.

The “reform” keeps all the above in place.

The above is not what I consider remotely  “consumer protection”. It’s “industry protection”.

@newb

You wrote

Why is this industry protected?

In the context of strata schemes, I meant the real estate agents are protected from facing the full force of what is considered “consumer protection” legislation as say KMART faces with its customers.

You wrote

I was thinking a lot of strata manager issues could be solved by having the strata roll visible to owners on strata hub

Forget the strata hub. The strata roll is not listed there; as far as I know only the Chair, Secretary and agent (if there is one) details are listed. Maybe one day the roll will be listed there, who knows?

But as for today, you as an owner are allowed to view the strata roll (which I assume lists names, phone numbers and email addresses). After all, the strata roll forms part of the strata’s records (under the control of the Owners’ Corp be it with the strata committee or the strata agent) which every owner has the legal right to inspect.

Of course the agent may be a so-and-so and not provide the data you want quickly and simply and instead may insist on you paying the (no less than) $34 inspection access fee, but even so, you should get all the details you’re after.

Here’s an idea: tell your agent you’re interested in contacting all owners about (mention some important matter) and for that you would like their names and email addresses to be sent to you (in no longer than say 3 days’ time).

The agent cannot deny you that. Oh, if he or a committee member says he cannot due to “privacy” concerns, tell him to check with NSW Fair Trading (13 32 20). One committee I deal with pulled that stunt (denying me an email address) and quickly behaved themselves when NSW Fair Trading set them straight.

@Jimmy

I wrote “forward” because in my recent experience – unless there is a lot of wading to do (by the agent in order to seek hunt down the sought after information) – agents prefer to email or direct owners to the portal rather than have them turn up at their office to inspect records

Of course there is nothing stopping an agent emailing information to owners on condition of paying the “inspection fee”.

newb wrote:

I’m reading through the new Property and Stock Agents Regulation 2022

under the

Property and Stock Agents Act 2002, care of Victor Dominello.

And so far it’s a pleasure.

A shame these can’t be applied retrospectively.

Eg.

Code of conduct

Record of trust account transactions…

I’m looking forward to reading schedule 4 and schedule 12

The Code of Conduct is worthless window dressing and if you want to be realistic about it then you will realize it sets an impossible bar.

1   Knowledge of Act and regulations

An agent must have a knowledge and understanding of the Act and the regulations under the Act, and such other laws relevant to the category of licence or certificate of registration held (including, laws relating to residential tenancy, fair trading, competition and consumer protection, anti-discrimination and privacy) as may be necessary to enable the agent to exercise his or her functions as agent lawfully.