We’re looking at some big news this week on the podcast and wondering what it all means.NSW Fair Trading has announced that they will be appointing a properties commissioner - like building commissioner David Chandler, only maybe without the fear factor – to help regulate all the professions involved in looking after buying, selling, renting and managing properties.What might those professions be? The inaugural appointees of Fair Trading’s Property Services Expert Panel provides a clue. The invitees included strata managers, real estate agents, building facilities managers, real estate trainers and employers, livestock and property agents, business brokers, short-term rental managers, someone from the Wool And Pastoral Agency and a representative of private landlords.LISTEN HEREEverybody and his or her brother or sister – except apartment owners and tenants. But hey, what would we know about buying and selling, let alone letting and renting property?You can see the full list, with the lucky participants named, if not shamed, here. By the way, a couple of times in the podcast we refer to the strata managers’ organisation SCA as Strata Community Australia. That’s their old name. The A now stands for Association, and has ever since they pulled New Zealand into their orbit.Anyway, the big questions are, what is this new Property Commissioner going to do and how are they going to do it? Will they be kicking butt and taking names, a la David Chandler? Or will they follow the established Fair Trading protocol of a light tap on the wrist and a quiet word with miscreants?Will they be looking at under-quoting, misrepresentation of properties, excessively long contracts, systematically waived cooling-off periods, gazumping, embedded networks, endemic dishonesty and general incompetence?Having kicked those topics around, we turn to security in strata buildings and a free webinar scheduled for June 30 (not this week, as I briefly thought).There’s a lot in this week’s podcast so it runs a little longer. Enjoy.TRANSCRIPT IN FULLJimmy 0:00So, you're back from Arnhem Land?Sue 0:02I am. It was so nice and warm up there. It's freezing down here again.Jimmy 0:07Yeah, we had a really cold day during the week. We've got a lot to talk about, because last week, there were a couple of big announcements from Fair Trading New South Wales and, the property market seems to have gone completely nuts.Sue 0:21Oh, it really is mad. I mean, it may not be hot weather, but it's certainly a hot market.Jimmy 0:28I'm Jimmy Thomson. I write the Flat Chat column for the Australian Financial Review.Sue 0:33And I'm Sue Williams. I write about property for Domain.Jimmy 0:36And this is the Flat Chat Wrap.So, for the past year, we've been talking about the Building Commissioner, David Chandler, and the difference he seems to be making in apartment buildings; getting them built. But, last week, the Fair Trading minister (or whatever they call themselves now; the Better Regulation and Shorter Titles. I think that's what the ministry is called). They announced there's going to be a properties commissioner.Sue 1:20This is something that the Real Estate Institute was really pushing for, wasn't it?Jimmy 1:24W
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Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcribed by Otter.ai.
Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.
