Sign up for Bronze Membership Monday 31st October by 5pm and receive the following bonus of the last twelve Member editions (sent via email)
- If you have any questions about Membership, please be sure to phone or email.
- Remember services are guaranteed and focus on risk management, compliance and best practice for Licensees, Administration, Property Management and Sales. These updates are great training and educations resources for all of the team. A fantastic way to keep up to date with best practice, risk management and best practice.
- If you require more information about Stacey Holt and Real Estate Excellence – please visit www.realestateexcellence.com.au - for membership forms and information, please download from the site OR email stacey.holt@realestateexcellence.com.au
Good luck on the Cup and have a great week!
Industry Update |
Pool Safety Certificates and a Reminder about the Pool Register
Real Estate Excellence recently wrote to the Pool Safety Council (PSC) Queensland regarding new pools and the pool safety laws. The following clarification has been received by the PSC. A reminder to Members that Queensland pool and spa owners only have until 4th November 2011 to register their pool and spa on the Government register – www.dlgp.gov.qld.gov.au
A Final inspection certificate (Form 17) may be used in place of a pool safety certificate providing that it was issued after December 2009. A Form 17 has the same validity period as a pool safety certificate, ie a Form 17 for a shared pool has a validity period of one year, and a non-shared pool has a two year validity period.
Curtain and Blind Laws Update
As reported in the last Member Update, new curtain and blinds laws may impact our industry. The matter is very ‘grey’ and unclear as to the actual impact.
Real Estate Excellence has received the following response from the OFT Queensland and shall advise Members accordingly once further information comes to hand.
Please be advised that this question is being considered nationally. However this Office strongly recommends that property owners, wherever they can, ensure their premises are safe, i.e. if they are aware of a property where there are children staying, it is advised that blind and curtain cords don't present a strangulation hazard for children under 3. It is also recommended that property owners look out for other potential hazards, for example bunk beds etc. Our Office will liaise with the ACCC and get a ruling on this issue so that you can pass this information onto your clients.
LICENSEE AND ADMINISTRATION best practice |
Auditing Trust Accounts
The audit period for licensees under the PAMD Act is the 12-month period in each year ending on the last day of the audit month. Your audit period depends on when your licence expires. Check the table below to see when your audit report is due.
Month of licence expiry | Audit period (dd/mm) | Audit report due by end of |
January | 01/10 - 30/09 | January |
February | 01/11 - 31/10 | February |
March | 01/12 - 30/11 | March |
April | 01/01 - 31/12 | April |
May | 01/02 - 31/01 | May |
June | 01/03 - 28/02 | June |
July | 01/04 - 31/03 | July |
August | 01/05 - 30/04 | August |
September | 01/06 - 31/05 | September |
October | 01/07 - 30/06 | October |
November | 01/08 - 31/07 | November |
December | 01/09 - 31/08 | December |
Applying for an extension
To apply for an extension to your lodgement time, contact Office of Fair Trading (OFT) before the audit report is due to be lodged. The notice must state the reason for the extension and the extra time you require.
Lodging your audit report
If you are renewing your licence, attach your audit report to your renewal application. Otherwise the OFT will send a requisition letter advising you to submit your report. If you have a licence with a three-year term, you must send the audit report for the non-renewal years to the audit section.
Changing an auditor
If you change auditors, you must tell the OFT in writing within one month and include the reason for the change. Your auditor is required to either countersign your letter of appointment or tell the OFT that they will be acting as your auditor.
Applying for approval as an auditor
An auditor is automatically approved if they are:
- registered as an auditor under the Corporations Act
- a member of CPA Australia or the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia
- a member of the National Institute of Accountants who has completed an auditing component of study in accountancy over at least three years.
If the auditor is unqualified, they must lodge an application for approval to audit a licensee´s trust account using Form 14 - Application for approval as an auditor
Ceasing to trade
You must lodge your final audit within two months after ceasing to trade.
Unused trust accounts
If you do not use your trust account within a year, you do not have to submit an audit. However, you do need to submit a statutory declaration stating that you did not operate a trust account during the audit period.
Agents who have unclaimed trust money, i.e. money that has been disbursed but not presented to the beneficiary, that is more than 12 months old at the 1 April each year should contact the Public Trustee. You can also get information on how to deal with unclaimed trust money from the Public Trustee´s Office.
Penalties
A penalty of $20 000 applies if an auditor improperly reports or leaves out required items. To review the required items contact Stacey Holt. The OFT can suspend a licence if a licensee continually fails to lodge an audit. If you continue to not lodge audits after being convicted, they can suspend your licence until you lodge the report or cancel the licence.
This Information has been sourced (with minor editing by Real Estate Excellence) from www.fairtrading.qld.gov.au. Forms listed above are available for download from the Fair Trading website.
Residential SALES best practice |
Rental Properties for Sale
The PAMD Real Estate Agency Practice Code of Conduct states that when sales people list property for sale, they must notify the managing agent in writing that the property has been listed. The Code/s for Property Agents and Resident Letting Agents) requires the managing agent to notify the tenant in writing that the rental property is now for sale. This generally means that the Property Manager managing the property should issue the RTA Form 10 Lessor’s Notice of Intention to Sell.
The RTRA Act requires that salespeople issue a Form 9 to the tenant each time they enter and provide a copy to the Managing agent unless otherwise agreed. The minimum time period is 24 hours; Section 193 of the Act provides an example of the 24 hours’ notice
If the lessor or agent hands the tenant an entry notice at 2.30p.m.
on a Tuesday, the lessor or agent may enter from 2.30p.m. on the
Wednesday.
Further obligations are imposed on salespeople in regards to the taking of photos or images that are to be used in advertising; section 203 requires that tenant’s written consent be obtained before the images can be used. Real Estate Excellence has a best practice form that is available to all Members upon written request. Platinum Elite Members please note that this form is on the disk recently supplied from Real Estate Excellence under the Sales category folder.
If the rental property is to be sold by Auction and the Auction is to be held on site, the Act requires that the tenant’s written consent be obtained to allow the auction to be held on site. Written consent is also required for open houses. The definition of an open house can found below in section 204 (2) of the RTRA Act.
If a rental property is listed for sale within the first 2 months of a tenancy (including a tenancy renewal) and the tenant has not been advised prior to the commencement, tenants are able to give 2 weeks written notice and vacate the property without penalty. (Section 307)
Please refer to the relevant sections below from the PAMD Real Estate Agency Practice Code of Conduct and the RTRA Act.
RTRA Act
203 Lessor or lessor’s agent must not use photo or image
showing tenant’s possessions in advertisement
Unless the lessor or lessor’s agent has the tenant’s written
consent, the lessor or agent must not use a photo or other
image of the premises in an advertisement if the photo or
image shows something belonging to the tenant.
Maximum penalty—20 penalty units.
204 Lessor or lessor’s agent must not conduct open house or
on-site auction without tenant’s consent
(1) The lessor or lessor’s agent for premises must not do either of
the following without the tenant’s written consent—
(a) conduct an auction, or allow an auction to be conducted, on the premises;
(b) conduct an open house, or allow an open house to be conducted, on the premises.
Maximum penalty—20 penalty units.
(2) In this section—
open house means an advertised period during which premises that are for sale or rent may be entered and inspected by prospective buyers or tenants generally.
PAMD Real Estate Agency Practice Code of Conduct
37 Notifying managing agent of appointment to sell
If a real estate agent accepts an appointment to sell a property that is a place of residence or business that is tenanted, the agent must immediately give written notice of the appointment to any agent responsible for managing the property.
38 Notifying customer of appointment to sell (same provision as section 33 of the RLA Code of Conduct)
(1) This section applies if a real estate agent managing a rental
property is aware that—
(a) the property is listed for sale; or
(b) a real estate agent or auctioneer has been appointed to
sell the property; or
(c) the client intends to sell the property by private sale.
(2) The agent must immediately give the customer written notice
of—
(a) the intended sale of the property; or
(b) the appointment of the real estate agent or auctioneer for
the sale of the property.
(3) This section does not apply to a customer renting premises if
the right of occupancy
The next Member update will discuss tips and information on what can be done if tenants are not allowing entry and reasonable inspections.
Residential PROPERTY MANAGEMENT best practice |
General Questions and Best Practice Response Below are some common questions asked from property managers and best practice responses from Real Estate Excellence that will be of assistance to property managers and licensees. Question How to tackle landlords that want tenants to deal with light bulbs, clean gutters, house washing, trim trees etc. and some dialogue we could use Real Estate Excellence Suggested Response The RTRA Act states in section 185 that lessors are responsible for maintaining their property and inclusions (if needed quote the section in full verbally or in writing) Although the legislation is broad and does not specifically mention matters such as light bulbs, gutters, house washing etc. our agency has a policy that due to risk management, we deem this to be a lessor responsibility. Particularly with the reference in the legislation to inclusions; due to the risk involved with this matter (and others) we strongly urge you to attend to the matter as part of your maintenance obligations.
Question How to tackle routine inspections with tenants who are not keeping the property clean (a lot of them think we are only inspecting for maintenance or damage, and are not looking at how they keep it). Wondering what is best practice here? Is it always worth breaching a tenant for cleaning? Or depending on the extent, is it worth mentioning to the tenants verbally or in writing, is there some dialogue or should this always go in writing regardless of the seriousness of the issue Real Estate Excellence Suggested Response Section 26 of the Standard Terms of the lease agreement states that the tenant must keep the premises cleaning having regard to how the property was found; this means that the tenants must keep the property clean similar to the way it was found as per the entry condition report. If the way the tenant is living is damaging the property such as excessive oil splatter, mould on grout, excessive hand marks on walls, marks on carpet there are two options;
The option will depend on the extent of the cleanliness concern and actual damage occurring. Always advise the lessor what is happening and what action has been taken to rectify the matter. It may be useful to remind tenants on the entry notice cover letter of their obligations under the tenancy contract such as standard term 26. Question Trees and fencing….we are never sure where we stand and are not sure how to convey professionally to a landlord where our responsibility ends and where they need to handle these issues Real Estate Excellence Suggested Response Explain to the lessor that “Our agency manages the tenancy relationship on your behalf; we do not manage your private property affairs. We hold qualifications for Real Estate Agency practice and this qualification does not extend to matters that are outside our scope and area of expertise. We regrettably are unable to provide assistance in this particular area”. We can provide you with general information and links to Government information to assist you with any tree or fencing matters and or concerns with neighbours. However regrettably we are not in a position to deal with the matter. Thank you for your understanding. Question How do we cover ourselves with tenants who keep the property in poor condition, don’t pay rent on time but the landlord has instructed us to keep them on? Should we put something in writing regarding this, or some dialogue when dealing with these landlords (who then complain about lack of rent and the condition of the property?) Real Estate Excellence Suggested Response Remind lessors of tenant’s obligations and your agency recommends that action be taken to rectify the concerns such as breach notices and sometimes termination depending on the situation. Refer to relevant sections of the RTRA Act and the tenancy agreement such as section 280 and section 188. Lessors should be advised of the risk to their landlord insurance if they do not instruct accordingly. Their lack of action may jeopardise a future policy claim. Also a lessor option is repeated breaches if the tenant receives more than 2 notice to remedy breaches in a 12 month period and remedies the breach; on the third or more breach, an urgent application to QCAT can be made to have the tenancy terminated due to repeated breaches. This section cannot be used if the tenant has been provided a notice to leave and the notice to leave was not followed through. If the lessor does not heed this advice, and you are spending more time than needed on properties, you may consider writing to the lessor explaining that due to the continual rent arrears and the lessor tolerance, your agency may need to consider negotiating the management fee due to the extra services required to manage their property this situation OR consider terminating the agreement. Ensure that all recommendations from the agency are placed in writing to the lessor and request written instructions for sound risk management. | ||||||||
Real Estate Excellence is proud to release a new service. The Property Management Resource CD has over 160 training and resource documents. Substantial Member Discounts are provided as part of this service. For more information, please email Stacey Holt. The following information is included on the CD provided.
The information provided is current as at October 2011. | ||||||||
Kind regards Stacey Holt – Director Real Estate Excellence Academy Pty Ltd ACN 143 352 023 Office 07 3161 1865 Mobile 0423 018539 PO Box 154, Alderley QLD 4051 NEW PAYMENT METHOD OFFERED – CREDIT CARD THROUGH PAYPAL | ||||||||
Real Estate Excellence Academy Pty Ltd provides General Real Estate Agency Best Practice Advice and Services Only. We do not provide legal advice. Clients are advised to seek advice from legal professionals for legal matters.This email (including attachments) is confidential and is intended solely for the use of the person to whom it is addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify Real Estate Excellence immediately by return email or by telephone on 0423 018 539 and delete the original email, destroy any printed copy and do not disclose or use the information contained in it. This email represents the views of the individual sender, unless otherwise stated. We do not warrant that this email or its attachments are error or virus free. Marketing emails are meant to assist you and the industry; not bother you. If you do not wish to receive marketing emails from Real Estate Excellence, please visit www.realestateexcellence.com.au and enter your details then click unsubscribe. Thank you. | ||||||||
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