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With the state’s Property Law Act 2023 set to take effect on 1 August 2025, real estate professionals will face new mandatory disclosure rules, raising concerns around the financial and legal liabilities agents may encounter.
These viewpoints emerged after the Queensland government announced on 20 September 2024 that the Property Law Act 2023 will come into effect on 1 August 2025.
After being passed in 2023, these new property laws will replace the state’s legislation dating back to 1974, and will introduce significant changes around property sales and leasing in Queensland.
Among these changes is the notable introduction of a new mandatory “seller’s disclosure regime”, which will apply to the sale of both residential and commercial property in Queensland.
Currently in Queensland, real estate professionals are allowed to prepare disclosure documents for properties, and are then able to exchange these documents to clients on behalf of a seller.
Under the new system, agents in Queensland will be required to provide prospective buyers with a disclosure statement and prescribed certificates related to a property they are selling, before a contract of sale is signed by a buyer.
Critically, prospective buyers will now have the right to terminate a contract of sale at any time before settlement if the required disclosure documents are not provided correctly, or contain insufficient or incorrect information that would have influenced a buyer’s decision to enter into a contract.
Weighing in on this matter, founder and principal solicitor at property conveyancing firm Dott & Crossitt, Jared Zak, in a recent conversation with real estate coach Tom Panos, stressed that this new legislation would open up agents to significant financial and legal liabilities.
Zak noted that the minimal costs around current property contracts are set to skyrocket as a result of the increased mandatory disclosure requirements, estimating that the cost of purchase alone of these certificates will be “at least $200–$300 per contract”.
The solicitor also highlighted that 95 per cent of property contracts drafted in Queensland are currently composed internally by an agent’s contract department, and stated that the new requirements will inflict significant financial and legal liabilities on the parties drafting property contracts.
Zak illustrated that buyers will be able to exercise their right of rescission up until settlement, explaining that buyers who get “cold feet” on the day before settlement will be able to “pull out no questions asked, no deposit forfeited” if a disclosure document such as a title search or a set of by-laws are missing.
He also stated that real estate professionals could also be exposed to legal liabilities, commenting that “if the vendor is committed to other purchases down the line, someone’s getting sued, and it’s going to probably be the agent if the agent is drafting the contract”.
In discussions with professionals across Queensland, Zak noted that agents have varying approaches to adapting to these new contract laws. Some agents plan to move forward with their existing contract departments, while others highlighted the increased cost of labour and liability in stating that they will look to outsource future property contracts to a conveyancer or solicitor.
Sharing that most agents reported they are currently most preoccupied with getting through the end of the current year, Zak shared his fear that Queensland agencies will get to May next year without having “realised what a big task it is” to adapt to the “massive change in legislation”.
These concerns are similar to those shared last year by the Real Estate Institute of Queensland (REIQ), which acknowledged the “number of successes” in the Property Law Act 2023, but stressed that the bill introduces “impractical and unnecessarily complex” disclosure requirements.
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