Real estate agent apologises for ‘blunder’ after detail on rental listing sparks major backlash

A Queensland real estate agent has apologised for their “mistake” after a detail on a rental listing sparked widespread outrage from Aussies.

A Queensland real estate agent has apologised after a “blunder” on a rental advertisement sparked widespread outrage from Aussies.

The recently posted advertisement for a three bedroom, two bathroom home in the Brisbane suburb of Bellbowrie caught the attention of prospective tenants due to a glaring detail in the “price” section of the listing.

“Offers over $750 would be considered,” the ad from real estate agency Harcourts Success stated.

The detail immediately enraged renters, given it goes against Queensland’s rent bidding laws that came into effect in 2024.

Under the updated legislation, a rental property must be advertised at a fixed price. It is also an offence for a property manager or owner to advertise a property with a rent range, put a property up for rent auction or proactively tell applicants to offer over the advertised price or accept offers higher than the advertised price.

A screenshot of the listing was shared to the Brisbane Reddit group, sparking hundreds of comments from furious Aussies.

“This really boils my blood,” one said.

“As a property manager myself this is disgusting. This is why our industry has such a low trust relationship with the public,” another wrote.

Others branded it “dodgy”, “cooked” and “unbelievable”.

Shortly after the post was made the price on the listing was updated to $800 a week.

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The listing initially stated that ‘offers over $750 would be considered’. Picture: Reddit

It was later changed to $800 per week. Picture: Realestate.com.au

The Queensland Residential Tenancies Authority (RTA) confirmed to news.com.au that the wording initially included in the listing would breach the Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act.

“Yes, this would be considered an offence under the Act. A rental property must be advertised at a fixed price – failing to do so is an offence,” an RTA spokesperson said.

“The RTA’s Compliance and Enforcement team will review the submission and proactively contact the property manager/owner as appropriate.”

The spokesperson said the organisation was focused on driving compliance with the Act by “monitoring and targeting in a timely, informed and consistent way conduct that does not meet community expectations”.

“The RTA issues penalty infringement notices in line with the penalty amounts allowed by law and pursues prosecution for serious matters in the public interest or where other enforcement actions have been contested,” they said.

Speaking to news.com.au, Praveen Sha, Director of Real Estate at Harcourts Success, said the original listing asking for “offers” was unintentional and apologised for any “inconvenience caused” as a result.

“We sincerely apologise for the mistake that happened. We didn’t intend to advertise this property without a price or wanted to invite rental bidding,” he said.

“This error happened due to a computer glitch, and a bit of human negligence.”

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The real estate agent in charge of renting the property said the initial price was a ‘mistake’. Picture: Realestate.com.au

The ad sparked widespread backlash online. Picture: Realestate.com.au

Mr Sha explained that the software used to create the advertisement has two options when setting the price, one box where you can set the dollar amount and another where you can include “free-form text”.

He said they had used AI for the write up and while they were creating the listing the software went down for a short period of time. When the software error was fixed, Mr Sha said the listing went live.

Mr Sha said there are two options when it comes to entering a price for the listing. Picture: Supplied

“The writing of offers over $750 was the notes from the landlord on his initial expectations, which was entered in the free-form text instead of notes, this is purely human error,” he said.

“But the advertisement was supposed to go online on the 4th and instead it went on 3rd. This shouldn’t have happened if we had not relied on AI for write up, and be more vigilant on what’s typed in the notes and free-form text.”

Mr Sha said the listing with the price error didn’t stay online for more than an hour and he changed it as soon as he realised the “blunder”.

The real estate agent said he also contacted the Queensland Residential Tenancies Authority (RTA) and explained the situation.

“Bottom line, we are responsible for what has happened and we sincerely apologise for the mistake,” he said.

Penny Carr, CEO of Tenants Queensland, a free statewide advice service for renters, told news.com.au that, given the listing was updated relatively quickly, it may be “unlikely” a penalty will be imposed.

In the case of minor breaches the RTA may also issue a ‘Notice of Non-Compliance’.

Rent bidding offences can also carry a maximum penalty of 50 penalty units, with the current value of a single penalty unit in Queensland being $161.30.

“The RTA has an anonymous online form for people to report these sort of breaches,” Ms Carr said.

“With an established agency like Harcourts you would expect them to be well informed of the laws.”

When announcing the new rent bidding laws last year, Meaghan Scanlon, former Queensland Minister for Housing, Local Government and Planning and Minister for Public Works, said the changes would make renting “fairer, safer and easier”.

“It means renters won’t have to bid more than advertised to secure a rental, that they’ll have their privacy protected and a new code of conduct will stamp out unprofessional practices,” she said at the time.