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The mistake was not discovered until after the buyer had moved into her new home.
John O’Neil & Son Pty Ltd has accepted a reprimand from Western Australia’s consumer protection agency and must now pay $7,000 in fines and costs because of the error.
The mistake occurred when two lots of adjacent, street front, strata-titled land in Camillo belonging to a single owner were mixed up during the course of a sale.
The two certificates of title listed street addresses that did not match the physical street addresses of the lots. During the preparation of a sale agreement in March 2022, the agency relied on the street address given by the seller to obtain the certificate of title and strata plan for the property being sold to a first home buyer.
The agency failed to notice that the lot on the purchased certificate of title did not correspond with the lot on the strata plan that was planned to be sold. The error was not picked up during the sale and resulted in the certificate of title being issued in the buyer’s name for the wrong property.
The buyer was already living in the property when, during a phone call relating to her First Home Buyer Grant, it was revealed that the lot number on the application did not match official records.
The agency has apologised to the parties affected during the course of this mistake, and has made changes to its business practices so that any sales representative who has physically viewed a property correctly identifies it, using more than just the certificate of title prior to preparing the selling agency agreement or contract of sale.
Commissioner for Consumer Protection, Trish Blake, called the episode “disappointing”, and reminded real estate agents of their duties during sales.
“Mistakes of this nature are unacceptable and represent major breaches of the laws that are designed to protect both buyers and sellers of real estate in WA,” Blake said.
“Agents must ensure that they have the proper procedures in place to prevent any errors being made which could result in disciplinary action,” she added.
While she stressed that it is not the responsibility of buyers to protect themselves from incidents such as this, she did offer some words of advice.
“There was no way for the new home owner to know they were being sold the wrong property, but buyers could put their mind at ease by asking their real estate agent whether they have properly checked the property information before signing a legally binding contract.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Juliet Helmke
Based in Sydney, Juliet Helmke has a broad range of reporting and editorial experience across the areas of business, technology, entertainment and the arts. She was formerly Senior Editor at The New York Observer.
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