Contracts rob on 24 Oct 2007 12:21 pm
Agents may only fill in details
Section 24 of the Legal Profession Act 2007 prohibits engaging in legal practice unless the person is an Australian legal practitioner. The maximum penalty is 300 penalty units ($22,500) or 2 years in prison. There is however a limited exception for real estate agents:
” 24 (2) (e) .. work performed by a PAMDA licensee, or by an employee of a PAMDA licensee, if the licensee or employee only fills in details in a preprinted contract or other document as part of performing the work of a PAMDA licensee and does not give advice about the contract or other document or the details that are filled in; ..”
The Queensland Law Society put out a call to all solicitors in its October 17, 2007 e-mail update asking for information about non-lawyers providing “conveyancing services” in breach of section 24. It has taken consumer advocate Tim O’Dwyer M.A., LL.B to point out the really significant impact of the section is on the current peculiarly Queensland culture of real estate agent control of contract formation. The section 24 exemption for filling in details would not seem to extend to the routine drafting of special conditions. See O’Dwyer’s piece “Catch 24 on Agent’s Contracts”.
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on 29 Nov 2007 at 10:25 pm 1.Tim O'Dywer said …
http://australianrealestateblog.com.au/blogs/australian_real_estate_blog/archive/2007/11/29/who-will-pay-the-legal-ferrymen.aspx
on 12 Jan 2008 at 12:32 am 2.Robert J Garvey, Solicitor » Agents may do more than just fill in details said …
[…] Last year’s legal clampdown was the subject of a previous blog posting on this website: http://garvey.biz/2007/10/24/agents-may-only-fill-in-details/. Once the implications of the new law, effective 1 July 2007, had percolated through real estate […]