Real Estate Agents: Professional Conduct and Client Care Rules

This assignment assesses the following learning outcomes

LO1: Apply the standards of professional conduct expected of real estate licensees to realistic scenarios, identify the duties of licensees regarding unsatisfactory conduct and misconduct and distinguish the steps in the complaints process.

LO2: Apply the requirements for licensing in the real estate industry to realistic scenarios.

LO3: Identify the main duties relating to real estate work as provided in legislation.

The branch Manager, Jane, has asked you to help her prepare some scenarios that she can use in her weekly meetings as on-going training for her sales team. She has recently overheard some interesting discussions in the office between the sales team and thinks it’s time to upskill and remind everyone of their duties and obligations under the Real Estate Agents Act 2008 and the Real Estate Agents Act (Professional Conduct and Client Care) Rules 2012 (the Code).

Jane has drafted the following scenarios based on complaints and positive feedback she has experienced during her career. She would like you to prepare the example answers so she can include them in the upcoming training sessions.

Read the following scenarios, then:

• State the legislation that applies to the situation (name the section(s) of the Act and rules of the code that have been breached, or that have been complied with), and

• Identify whether each issue is likely to reflect:

a. misconduct, or
b. unsatisfactory conduct, or
c. no further action is required.

Complaints:
We had been searching for property in Ferngully for months when we got a call from a salesperson to say he had just listed a property that would be perfect for us. He said that we would have to be quick as it was going to be advertised on his agency's website in a few days and that we should view it quickly and make an offer if we liked it. He explained that we couldn’t view inside yet, but we could take a drive past and look from the street. He also sent us an email with all the property description and information. We raced around to view and it was exactly what we had been looking for. We rang the salesperson back and told him we were super keen and wanted to view as soon as possible so that we could make an offer. A few hours later he returned our call to say the owners had changed their mind and didn’t want to sell. It turned out that he didn’t even have a signed agency agreement in place.

Task

• Identify one section from the Act and three rules from the Code that are relevant.

• Justify whether misconduct or unsatisfactory conduct or no further action applies (if unsatisfactory or misconduct applies, also identify 
the section that relates)