Ballarat estate agency Gull and Company has been fined for operating without a licence for almost two months in 2015.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The real estate agent has been reprimanded and penalised $5000 by Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT).
The company operated without a licence between 27 August and 19 October of that year, during which time it carried out estate agent functions.
A release from Consumer Affairs Victoria said the company failed to lodge its annual statement and pay the required fee on time, meaning its licence was automatically cancelled.
Gull and Company claimed that it had not received the notification email, and was therefore not given sufficient notice of its annual statement and payment obligations, as required under the Estate Agents Act 1980.
However, prior to the VCAT hearing, Gull and Company arranged for a forensic examination of an old computer server, which showed that the company had in fact received the email.
As well as the penalty and reprimand, Gull and Company must also:
- advise vendors that it acted for while unlicensed that, among other things, it was not a licensed estate agent at the time
- establish a system to ensure that it lodges its annual statements and pays the required fees on time.
Gull and Company had its licence renewed on October 20, 2015.
The $5000 penalty must be paid into the Victorian Property Fund.
A Gull and Co spokesperson released the following statement.
“They said there was no deliberate fault on our side and it is something that happens in communications today. Our forensic analyst could not find that we had received, it was only when we got specialist forensic people in that they found it, but no one can tell where it went.
It is just something that happens. That has been our case from day one - we did not receive the notice.
Consumer Affairs have also completely changed their renewal systems to identify issues like this, and to allow a Real Estate Agent to track their licence renewals.
This was not available to date.”