Victoria Housing Statement: Government slammed for ‘repackaging’ seven-year-old crack down

The Victorian government has been slammed for “repackaging” a seven-year-old real estate crack down as part of its vaunted Housing Statement this week.

The Victorian government has been slammed for “repackaging” a seven-year-old real estate crack down as part of its vaunted Housing Statement this week.

The Statement’s website launched this week promises to “crack down on dodgy real estate agents by introducing tougher penalties for those who break the law, including taking commissions away from agents who underquote”.

The same promise to remove commissions was made in 2016 as the Andrews government pledged to go after rogue agents and issue $30,000 fines.

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But in the past financial year, the largest fine issued for underquoting by Consumer Affairs Victoria was for $22,000. In their annual underquoting reporting for the same period they did not disclose having seized any agents’ commissions.

Cate Bakos Property boss and former Real Estate Buyers Agents Association of Australia president Cate Bakos said the government had “repackaged” their promise from seven years ago and homebuyers were now frustrated with authorities as well as dodgy agents.

“There are literally thousands of underquoted properties out there,” Ms Bakos said.

“But people who complain get an automated response from Consumer Affairs and no follow up.

“People are very frustrated with the government, they see Consumer Affairs as a toothless tiger.”

Buyer's agent Cate Bakos believes homebuyers are now getting frustrated by the government for a lack of meaningful action on underquoting.

The buyer’s advocate added that she did not see how the government could possibly address the issue without “vastly increasing their task force”.

Another prominent buyer’s advocate David Morrell said the current enforcement was like “a slap over the face with a wet lettuce”.

“They just don’t do anything,” Mr Morrell said.

“The way to really stop it is to fine owners, the vendors.”

Last year CAV was given a $3.8m boost for an underquoting task force.

In the past financial year the agency issued 48 fines to 29 agents for a combined total just above $520,000. It also issued a further 37 official warnings.

However, they received more than 1600 inquiries about underquoting from the public in the same time frame.

There were 1466 inquiries in the prior financial year, when CAV issued 46 infringement notices with fines totalling more than $360,000 and 157 official warnings to 86 agencies.

But it appears enforcement is going backwards.

Property expert and buyer's advocate David Morrell. Picture: David Geraghty.

In the 2018-2019 financial year, CAV enforcement activities for underquoting resulted in $2.7m in fines and court fees for rogue agents — including a single agency hit with an $880,000 reprimand for underquoting on 22 homes.

This week’s Housing Statement also promised to extend rental protections, with tougher penalties for both landlords and agents who break leasing laws or fail to provide safe homes that meet minimum standards set out in changes to the Victorian Tenancies Act in 2021.

They also announced plans to make it an offence to accept higher offers for rent than the advertised figure.

Despite admitting this would be an expansion to CAV’s real estate enforcement activities, the government would not confirm if they had increased funding for the agency.

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