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“While the mistakes in this case appear minor and didn’t affect the sale of the property, they did represent major breaches of the laws that are designed to protect both buyers and sellers of real estate in WA,” Commissioner for Consumer Protection David Hillyard said.
Western Town & Country and supervising agent Nick Di Giulio have been fined $3,000 each for breaching the Real Estate Agents and Sales Representatives Code of Conduct.
The State Administrative Tribunal (SAT) reprimanded the York agency because it did not exercise due skill, care and diligence.
The errors include:
- Failing to carry out any title or strata plan searches before and after the Selling Agreement for the sale of a York unit being signed by the property owners in May 2016;
- An Offer and Acceptance contract signed in August 2017 by the property owners and the purchaser had the wrong address;
- The purchaser did not get the strata title information related to the property as required by the Strata Titles Act; and
- Prior to the settlement of the property in September 2017, the address was corrected on the sales contract, but the parties did not initial the changes as is required.
To Mr Di Giulio’s defence, he told the SAT the errors were inadvertent as the agency was operating under great stress at the time.
He noted he has since taken actions to improve the practices and procedures at Western Town & Country.
The Commissioner for Consumer Protection said agents have to ensure they comply with all the requirements of the law all the time.
“Agents must ensure that they have the proper procedures in place to prevent any errors being made which could result in disciplinary action,” Mr Hillyard said.
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