A conveyancer has warned real estate agents that a simple contract mistake could land their clients in hot water, after a Queensland couple lost $145k on the sale of their house.
A recent case where a couple lost $145,000 as a result of not reading their property sale contract has sparked a reminder about agents’ obligations to sellers.
Last year, Nadine and Michael Kucks intended to sell their Hodgson Vale property for $1.35 million, but signed a contract for $1.21 million instead, with their conveyancing solicitor only realising a month later.
The mishap followed apparent miscommunication between the buyers, Jessica and Kristian Beck, and McGrath Toowoomba director Heston Marino, about two different price offers.
The matter was taken to Queensland’s Supreme Court, where the Judge found the Becks had executed the contract properly, and ordered the Kucks to complete the sale for the lower price.
According to Conveyancing Services Queensland conveyancing manager, Darren Morris, mistakes in property contracts were common, but the large figure involved and the lack of clarity over how the mistake happened made the case unique.
“Unfortunately, there’s no one person to blame. You can’t blame the agents, you can’t blame the conveyancers, and we don’t want to blame the clients, but everyone has a role to play,” he told REB.
While Morris said there were a few factors involved, the mistake may have come down to communication issues between the agent and seller.
Despite the onus being largely on the seller to check the contract details, Morris said agents had a duty to make sure their client knew what they were signing.
“They’re paying a large amount of money to the agents to be their professional person in charge of the sale. It’s not just selling the house, it’s not just putting up a sign and making some lovely advertisements,” he said.
However, he said agents who were more time poor could advise the seller to ask a solicitor or conveyancer to go over the contract before signing.
“I’m fine with them sending it to us to have a look before it’s signed, and we become responsible for those minor things, but they don’t do that,” he said.
Morris said while buyers often felt pressured to secure the property right away, sellers could afford more time to have the contract properly looked over.
“If they get a very good offer on a Friday night … if they indicate to the buyer they are going to accept it, but they’re not going to until Monday morning when their solicitor checks the document, the buyer will usually quite happily sit there until Monday.”
Morris also said the case emphasised the importance of agents protecting themselves against potential legal issues that could arise by documenting all exchanges with buyers and sellers.
“I was a real estate agent 25 years ago – I understand the pressures and the running around, but it’s just not that hard to send some text messages and emails these days,” he said.
“There’s just no excuse for not sending a text message or an email just to confirm something, so you’ve got some proof later on that you did say what you claim to say.”
Morris added that recording phone conversations, with the parties’ permission, and deleting them after settlement, was also an option.
“There are numerous things that the agents can do, but they choose not to. They’ve got to start to learn to protect themselves,” he said.
According to Morris, too often in Queensland, sellers and buyers treated contracts like an inconvenience, neglecting to put in the time to read them properly.
“The purchasing and selling of real estate of million-dollar-plus properties seems to be taken lighter than when people go and buy a secondhand car,” he said.
“They try to tell us that they can’t take half a day off work, yet everyone can take time off for their holidays and everything else. It’s amazing how lightly they treat buying and selling houses,” he concluded.
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