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A Ray White New Farm agent and agency have been fined $12,960 by the Office of Fair Trading for making false and misleading representations.
Hamish Bowman and MBL Property Group, the licensee for Ray White New Farm, have both been issued a civil penalty notice.
Mr Bowman was fined $2,160 while MBL Property Group was fined $10,800 in relation to an advertised price for a Fortitude Valley property in October 2017.
Late last year, a consumer received marketing material for a property that showed the price as being “offers from $645,000”.
Mr Bowman allegedly advised the consumer that the vendors were looking for offers over $749,000.
The consumer complained to Ray White New Farm and got a response from Mr Bowman which said that in real estate “from” means from a price and that it was not deceptive.
The OFT received the complaint and, after an investigation, found evidence of a breach of the Australian Consumer Law for false or misleading representations about the sale of the land.
Fair Trading executive director Brian Bauer said that false or misleading advertising in any industry would not be tolerated, including “from” prices in real estate marketing.
“In this instance, the marketed ‘from’ price was significantly below the price the vendor was looking for, and therefore was misleading,” Mr Bauer said.
“This result serves as a warning to other real estate agents that if they breach laws and industry regulations designed to protect consumers, the OFT will not hesitate to take action.”
Lisa Pennell, a spokesperson for Ray White, said that the property group upholds high standards for its members.
“In this instance, those standards have not been upheld, albeit unintentionally.
“Good communication is always the key to success in business and in life, and in this instance, it has been recognised not to be appropriate,” Ms Pennell said.
The payment of a penalty specified in a civil penalty notice is not an admission of a contravention of the ACL.
A civil penalty notice may be issued when the OFT has reasonable grounds to believe that a person has contravened certain consumer protection laws.
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