Legal action has been launched against a Yarraville estate agency and its director for allegedly breaching the state’s underquoting laws.
Nicholas Skapoulas and his agency, Nicholas Scott Real Estate, will face a VCAT hearing after Consumer Affairs Victoria’s underquoting taskforce initiated its first disciplinary proceeding.
Disciplinary proceedings can lead to the suspension or cancellation of an estate agent’s licence.
After reviewing multiple sales campaigns managed by Nicholas Scott, the taskforce will allege that Mr Skapoulas and his agency committed several breaches of underquoting laws for 11 separate properties they were engaged to sell.
The alleged breaches include repeatedly supplying statements of information that did not comply with the law such as advertising an indicative selling price lower than the estimated selling price they’d given the seller.
Statements of information are documents designed to help a buyer assess whether they can afford a property or not and usually include the indicative selling price, the median selling price for properties in the same suburb, and the details of three comparable properties recently sold.
Under Victoria’s underquoting laws, statements of information must be provided for all properties for sale.
Nicholas Scott is also alleged to have failed to comply with a statutory notice issued by taskforce officers.
The matter has been filed at VCAT and will be heard at a date to be determined.
