The government has announced a complete overhaul of real estate law in a bid to crack down on unscrupulous agents.
Associate Justice Minister Clayton Cosgrove says a more transparent and independent complaints system is long-overdue.
Cosgrove says currently most complaints are handled by the industry itself and are seldom brought before the Real Estate Agents' Licensing Board, which can impose more serious penalties.
He says that in 2004 the Real Estate Institute received 132 complaints but none were referred to the Licensing Board, and in 2005 only seven of the 163 complaints it received were referred. He says there were long delays in processing complaints and allegations of poor quality investigations.
The Real Estate Institute says a very small number of dodgy agents has brought the profession into disrepute.
President Murray Cleland says only a small percentage of members occasionally let them down. He says the crackdown has been brought to a head by a couple of high profile cases pushed by the media.
An earlier proposal to clean up the industry was put forward by the institute, but that was rejected by the government because it was too soft.
Proposed changes will cover real estate agent training requirements, and whether an independent body should be set up to deal with issues that are currently dealt with in-house. This body would issue licences and assess agents and also handle any complaints.
Full details of the proposed reforms will be released for public comment in May, with a bill to clean up the industry introduced later this year.
