Western Australian agency fined for unregistered employee

A real estate agency in Gosnells landed in court after employing a sales representative with a lapsed registration.

Attree Real Estate was fined $2,500 for employing and paying commissions to the unregistered employee, even though they had been informed that the sales representative's registration was not current.

For 10 months, between August 2012 and May 2013, the employee received commissions continued to work as a sales representative at Atree Real Estate. The agency was ordered by the court to pay $1,500 for employing an unregistered sales representative and $1,100 for the payment of sales commissions.

In a separate case in late November, the same employee was fined $500 and ordered to pay costs of $588 for acting as a real estate sales representative without being registered. The employee admitted that they had been reminded multiple times by Consumer Protection to renew their registration.

Commissioner for Consumer Protection Anne Driscoll said real estate agents are legally obliged to ensure their sales representatives were registered.

"The licensing and registration system is designed to maintain high standards of conduct within the WA real estate industry and provide protection for consumers who place a great deal of trust in agents and their sales representatives to handle one of their biggest assets," said Driscoll.

"Agents who employ unregistered sales representatives and sales representatives who fail to renew their registrations but continue to operate are breaking the law and will face prosecution with the risk of being fined as well as having their professional reputation tarnished."

Last week, a different Western Australian agency and its employee were also fined after Consumer Protection investigations. Sand Dollar WA Pty Ltd, trading as Harcourts Rockingham, was fined $500 after employing a sales representative for 22 months after their registration had lapsed.

The employee was also fined $500.