Compliance
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Is your property agency compliant with the Supervision Guidelines?
You need to have a written document demonstrating your compliance with the Guidelines by the end of March 2021.
The proforma documents (five in total) that have been developed by the Australian College of Professionals, and are available for property agencies in New South Wales, include:
Supervision Guidelines – Proforma (provided in a word document version to allow you to tailor the information to your agency’s specific requirements)
Four excel spreadsheets to utilise to maintain your specific agency information. The spreadsheets are ready for you to input your data and maintain these as records for inspection if NSW Fair Trading request.
- CPD Register
- Gifts and Benefits Register
- Licensee-In-Charge Register
- Complaints Register
Ensure that you comply with the NSW Fair Trading requirements. Compliance is a necessary aspect of operating a property agency. Whilst compliance can sometimes feel expensive…the cost of non-compliance through penalties being issued, is certainly a more daunting outcome.
Visit https://acop.edu.au/supervision-guidelines/ to find out more and to purchase your copy of the Supervision Guidelines.
Rosy Sullivan | College Principal & Director
Michael Carolan | Senior Trainer & Assessor
Australian College of Professionals - RTO 91513.
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As per Section 31 of the Property and Stock Agents Act 2002, an individual must hold a class 1 licence to be in charge of a business. When we talk about the term ‘business’, this naturally means the agency that is offering property services to consumers. It also includes those agents who are working as Independent Contractors within an agency business. Therefore, someone who is an Independent Contractor (either as a Pty Ltd company, a partnership or as a sole trader) is running their own business within another business. This still means that the Independent Contractor needs to have a Class 1 licence, as they are in charge of a business.
Rosy Sullivan | College Principal & Director
Australian College of Professionals - RTO 91513.
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Now is the time to have your say in relation to the review being undertaken in NSW of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 and the Strata Schemes Development Act 2015. NSW Fair Trading are keen to hear how the laws can be changed to improve the experience of more than one million people who live or work in strata schemes in NSW. There is currently a discussion paper that can be found at https://haveyoursay.nsw.gov.au/63252/widgets/320220/documents/189097
Rosy Sullivan | College Principal & Director
Australian College of Professionals - RTO 91513.
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For parts of their role, property agents in NSW are legally required to use forms that have been approved by the Secretary for the Department of Customer Services. These forms are all found on the NSW Fair Trading website. The most relevant forms for agents are those relating to notification of a franchising agreement, disclosure to clients and prospective buyers of land, consent to agents obtaining beneficial interests, and consumer guidelines. Make sure that you check that you are utilising the most current forms as part of your agency practice.
Rosy Sullivan | College Principal & Director
Australian College of Professionals - RTO 91513.
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When an agency is considering its general compliance matters, outside of sales and property management practices and legislative requirements, they should be considering issues such as signage on the front door (or external to the office) as required by section 29 of the Property and Stock Agents Act, legal names or licence numbers on business cards, currency of licenses and certificates, CPD register, complaints register, trust account authorities for disbursements and adherence to the new Supervision Guidelines. The Licensee-In-Charge is responsible for ensuring this compliance and should be checking these requirements on a regular basis. Naturally, an agency can have an external compliance check completed by the Australian College of Professionals.
Rosy Sullivan | College Principal & Director
Australian College of Professionals - RTO 91513.
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Whilst an Assistant Agent can undertake the initial inspection of a property for management and complete the managing agency agreement or the letting agreement, it is not deemed to be valid until a licensed agent from that same agency checks and countersigns the agreement. This does not need to be the nominated Licensee-In-Charge, just another Class 1 or Class 2 licensed agent. An Assistant Agent can prepare and execute a Residential Tenancy Agreement (lease) with a tenant and can also undertake all of the duties of a property officer, including the issuing of notices such as termination notices, rent increases etc and organising repairs and maintenance for a managed property.
Rosy Sullivan | College Principal & Director
Australian College of Professionals - RTO 91513.
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As of September 2020, there is an additional requirement in relation to the completion of Residential Tenancy Agreements (leases) for residential properties. In addition to the requirement for the agreement to include a method of contact for the landlord, even if the property is being managed by a real estate agent on behalf of the landlord; it is now required to included the State/Territory/Country in which the landlord “ordinarily resides”. Furthermore, if the State, Territory or country in which the landlord ordinarily residents changes, the tenant must be advised in writing within 14 days of the change.
Rosy Sullivan | College Principal & Director
Australian College of Professionals - RTO 91513.
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A Licensee-In-Charge of a property agency must prepare and maintain written procedures that ensure all communication during the provision of services under an agency agreement is with the owner of the property or the person with the legal right to act on the owner’s behalf. The procedures for these ongoing communications must ensure that agents only use contact details held on the property file which have been confirmed with the owner, and if changes are requested to these contact or bank details, that the changes are confirmed via an alternative contact method to the way in which the request originated with all parties to the agency agreement.
Rosy Sullivan | College Principal & Director
Australian College of Professionals - RTO 91513.
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In response to the impacts of COVID-19 on the property sector, the NSW government has extended the grace period for penalties under the Act and its regulations until 1 April 2021. Simply, this means that the regulator of the property industry, NSW Fair Trading, have given agents an additional six months to get their agencies in order and ensure their compliance with the amendments to the legislation and they will not be issuing penalty infringements during this “warn and educate” period.
Rosy Sullivan | College Principal & Director
Australian College of Professionals - RTO 91513.
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Scamwatch, through the ACCC, has seen a 55% increase in reports involving loss of personal information from last year, bring the numbers to more than 24,000 reports of scams and over $22 million in losses. The NSW Police Cyber Crime Unit has reported a rising number of property frauds involving the use of false bank accounts. In addition to the Fraud Prevention Guidelines, which are part of the Supervision Guidelines for property agents in NSW, it is important that agents always verify who they are dealing with. In addition to obtaining photo id and other information, including proof of property ownership at the commencement of a property transaction, any requested changes throughout the term of the agency agreement, should always be verified – and very often, a real live telephone call is the best way to do this.
Rosy Sullivan | College Principal & Director
Australian College of Professionals - RTO 91513.
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Yes they have. The deadline for trust account audits for the year ending 30 June 2020 has been extended to 31 December due to the impact of COVID-19. All audits of trust accounts operated and managed by property agents in NSW must be completed and submitted online by the auditor through the Auditors Report Online portal. It is the agent’s responsibility to ensure that their auditor submits audits by the due date.
Rosy Sullivan | College Principal & Director
Australian College of Professionals - RTO 91513.
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Due to COVID-19, there have been quite a few changes to tenancy laws. These legislative changes are temporary and for residential tenancies stated that they were for a 6 month period only – however the COVID-19 period will last longer than that (unfortunately). The new temporary legislation states that the new 90 day notice period applies when ending a fixed-term agreement, a periodic agreement or a tenancy because of breach of agreement other than for non-payment of rent or charges.
Rosy Sullivan | College Principal & Director
Australian College of Professionals - RTO 91513.
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