Victoria court rules against Boronia estate agent

The director of a former estate agency in Melbourne’s Boronia has been declared ineligible to hold an estate agent’s licence, or be an estate agent’s representative for five years, after he admitted to knowingly authorising and permitting the agency to convert trust money to its own use.

Michael Knight, 49, was found guilty by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal of breaching the Estate Agents (Professional Conduct) Regulations 2008 on several counts, such as not acting with care and diligence in his role as an estate agent.

His company, Michael Knight Real Estate Pty Ltd, was also found to have violated the Estate Agents Act 1980 by:

depositing trust money directly into the agency’s business account for its own use thrice

causing a deficiency in the trust account by withdrawing trust money prior to property settlement a further three times

not completing a number of monthly trust account reconciliations, or completing them incorrectly

failing to have the agency’s trust account audited for the 2013-2014 financial year.

The tribunal reprimanded Knight and declared him ineligible to hold a real estate agent’s licence, or to be an agent’s representative for five years.

Knight also gave an undertaking to the tribunal that he would never apply for, or seek to hold another estate agent’s licence. He must also inform any estate agent that employs him in future about the ruling against him.

Michael Knight Real Estate Pty Ltd was also reprimanded and declared ineligible to hold a real estate agent’s licence for five years.