“We’ll All Be Rooned”, said Hanrahan

Echos of the well-known poem about Irish-Catholic-bush-pessimist Hanrahan came out of the Australian Capital Territory 18 months ago when The Canberra Times reported eleventh-hour alarm over the likely ruinous effects of anti-gazumping real estate and conveyancing reforms.

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Finders Keepers?

In the real world people sometimes do discover long-forgotten money or valuable objects. Often lawyers then become involved to help determine who gets to keep this 'buried treasure' because, unfortunately, the legal position is rarely so simple as 'finders keepers'

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Estate Agents – Unqualified Hucksters?

There is an urgent need for uniform, Australia-wide, real estate regulation. By all means let agents make sales, but the nation's laws must prohibit unqualified hucksters from any part in the preparation, completion, signing or exchange of real estate contracts.

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The Battle Of Multiple Offers

Not many agents appear to know it, but the common law across Australia has long provided that they owe fiduciary duties to their seller clients, that the relationship between agents and their clients is one of 'utmost good faith' and that full disclosure must be made to sellers of any information obtained by agents.

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