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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 7 Hansard (26 June) . . Page.. 2531 ..

MR STANHOPE

The bill doesn't propose that real estate agents should draft the contract, but it does allow a real estate agent to fill in certain prescribed details, including the name and address of the parties, the sale price on the contract, the date the contract is made and any chattels included in the sale. An agent can also organise the exchange of contracts between the buyer and seller. This measure will fast-track the process of buying a property.

The bill also introduces a new five-day cooling-off period to protect buyers. This brings the ACT into line with most other jurisdictions. The government considers that it's entirely appropriate to introduce a cooling-off period for the sale of residential property, as the home is the most significant investment both financially and emotionally that most people in the ACT will ever make. The cooling-off period will apply only to residential properties sold by private treaty and will not apply to sales by auction. If a buyer decides, for any reason, during the five-day cooling-off period to cool off, they may rescind the contract.

In balancing the rights of buyers and sellers, the government has followed the prudent practice adopted in Queensland and New South Wales of imposing modest financial disincentive on the exercise of the right to cool off. Buyers who exercise the right to cool off will forfeit 0.25 per cent of the purchase price of the property. This measure will protect the rights of sellers and maintain the integrity of the conveyancing system.

The bill provides, for the first time anywhere in Australia, the compulsory application of statutory warranties in a contract for the sale of residential property. Currently, these warranties can be struck out of contracts, leaving the buyer without any consumer protection. The bill makes it mandatory for certain warranties and conditions to be included in all contracts for the sale of residential property.

The bill will also repeal the Energy Efficiency Rating (Sale of Residential Property) Act 1997 and re-enact the provisions of that legislation, with some minor amendments.

The final major reform in the bill amends the existing prohibition on dummy bidding at auctions and introduces new requirements for the conduct of auctions of residential property. The bill will now require an auctioneer to disclose publicly a bid made by a seller as a seller bid. Seller bids are only permitted in certain circumstances outlined in the bill. The bill also requires that the auctioneer is to make available a copy of the conditions of the auction for at least 30 minutes before the auction begins.

The bill creates a number of offences in relation to dummy bidding. The existing offence of making a dummy bid remains, and a new offence of falsely acknowledging a dummy bid is introduced. Persons who disrupt an auction by preventing another person from making a bid will also be guilty of an offence.

The bill also introduces a requirement that bidders at public auctions must register their details in a bidders record and only recorded bidders will be able to make a bid at a public auction. The record will facilitate the enforcement of these provisions by the ACT Office of Fair Trading.

A regulation-making power is also provided which gives the executive the power, amongst other things, to regulate the conduct of public auctions of residential property and to prescribe standard rules for the conduct of public auctions of residential property.

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