Foxes Rewarded For Chicken Protection

 OPINION
by Tim O'Dwyer M.A., LL.B
Solicitor
Consumer Advocate
watchdog@argonautlegal.com.au

 

When consumer advocate Neil Jenman sent me a clipping of The Courier-Mail's report on the 2007 winner of the Office of Fair Trading's TradeSmart Award, he added a frank warning. “Make sure you have a bucket ready,'' he said, “because this'll make you want to spew.''

I was more dismayed than sickened to read how Fair Trading Minister Margaret Keech (in one of her most outrageous acts before loosing the Fair Trading portfolio) had announced the Real Estate Institute of Queensland had received one of her department's Consumer Protection Awards. These awards, said the Minister, recognised some of the state's most innovative programs aimed at “promoting the rights of Queensland consumers''.

According to Fair Trading, the TradeSmart Award is intended to recognise achievement by a business, company or association in “promoting consumer protection''.

Why on earth would the REIQ be achieving anything other than its commendable promotion of agents' services and protection of agents' rights? No wonder Jenman's bucket warning. Talk about foxes being rewarded for chicken protection!

The REIQ says it “exists'' to support member agents with information, products and resources to complement their business practices. Fair enough, but I wonder about the REIQ's assertion that this ensures “professional service for the public''. Yet the REIQ says it also “supports the community''. How? By providing relevant industry information about buying and selling property.

Well, you can fool some of the people all the time, all of the people some of the time and, it seems, the Office of Fair Trading every time.

Naturally enough the REIQ was feeling, in the words of its managing director Dan Molloy, “pretty proud'' about receiving a consumer protection gong for establishing an accredited agency program. “Proactive programs like these, run by industry, encourage stronger consumer confidence in the market place,'' enthused the Minister. Not that stronger consumer confidence equates with better protection.

Molloy explained that the institute wanted to raise the bar for the industry. (How low had the bar dropped beforehand, one might ask.) Improved “professional standards'' would be widely recognised and publicly acknowledged. How? Accredited agencies would be identifiable by their use of accreditation logos (“a visual safeguard to help consumers make informed and confident choices'').

Last year Molloy's predecessor, Don McKenzie, unashamedly revealed that the bottom line was really to “motivate consumers to always use an REIQ accredited agency''. Have agents' standards improved? Is the public better served? Are consumers any better protected?

Gold Coast District Law Association president and Queensland Law Society councillor Ted Skuse speaks for most conveyancing solicitors when he says agents' preparation of contracts and other documents remains “lamentable''.

Skuse also points to common failings by many agents:

• Not giving consumers genuine opportunities to obtain independent legal advice and representation.
• Not completing contracts fully and accurately. * Not collecting reasonable deposits.
• Not understanding the impact of GST on property transactions.
• Late posting of signed contracts to solicitors, often after the expiry of cooling-off and other time limits.

The Office of Fair Trading, in giving the award, confused improving customer service standards with consumer protection. The REIQ has no mandate from its members for consumer protection. That is Fair Trading's function. So it was a sad day when the Fair Trading Minister counted the REIQ among “Queensland's best consumer advocates''. Helping real estate consumers confidently make informed choices (about which agents to use) hardly equates with consumer advocacy which involves standing up and speaking out for consumers.

Meanwhile, don't hold your breath for one of Australia's most passionate consumer advocates -- Neil Jenman -- receiving a Fair Trading Award. Jenman's promotion and defence of consumer rights has necessitated not only criticising self-serving organisations like the REIQ but also tipping a bucket on lame governments, misguided ministers and misled regulators. (This article ran recently on the Perspectives Page of The Courier Mail newspaper.)

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