Victorian real estate agents have been fined $2m for underquoting since 2022

More than $2m in fines have been dished out to Victorian real estate agents for underquoting properties amid a “spike” in offending.

Dodgy Victorian real estate agents have forked out millions of dollars in fines for underquoting in the last three years amid a flood of complaints to the state’s consumer watchdog.

Consumer Affairs Victoria revealed its $3.8m underquoting taskforce has issued more than $2m in fines to agents since September 2022, with the watchdog receiving about 4200 online during this time — about 116 a month.

It comes after the taskforce conducted a blitz in Melbourne’s northern suburbs after a “spike” of complaints in the Hume municipality.

A blitz in Doncaster — in Melbourne’s northeast — has also been completed this year.

It is illegal for an agent to advertise or advice a buyer of a price that is less than the seller’s asking price, the agent’s estimated selling price or a price in a written offer already rejected

by the seller on the basis it is too low.

The maximum penalty is for this offence is nearly $40,000.

A property selling for more than initially advertised does not always been underquoting has occurred, with the most common example being interested buyers competing with each other and pushing up the sale price.

Dodgy real estate agents have been slapped with more than $2m in fines by the government’s underquoting taskforce Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Crosling

Buyers advocate Ben Mitchell, of Your Key Advocacy, said underquoting was an issue he dealt with “all the time”.

“I always tell the clients that every situation is different, so you can’t always say everything is underquoted,” he said.

“I always make sure I do my own research on where the value is going to land, it’s not always just the agent’s fault. Often if you’ve got low stock levels or it is a really unique property it can be really difficult to value. But often I go into it and I can value the property pretty accurately, so I often get frustrated as to why agents can’t do the same thing or say they can’t do the same thing.”

Mr Mitchell said underquoting was “really frustrating” for buyers.

“Because if you pay $600 for a building and pest inspection and it flies way over where the quote range is and the agent’s almost really encourage you to be there and get your due diligence done — only for you to be blown out of the water,” he said.

Mr Mitchell said the best way to avoid being duped was to “match what’s selling in the area to your budget”.

“Go and look at the ‘sold section’ of realestate.com and Domain,” he said.

“Look at properties that have sold and reverse engineer with how does that fit with your budget and what you’re looking for.

“If a property you really like sold for $900,000 and you have $800,000 then you’re probably looking in the wrong area.”