Struggling authority to double real estate agent levies
The Real Estate Agents Authority is proposing to raise the amount it charges real estate agents to be licensed from $495 a year to $760.The funds are used to pay for the Real Estate Agents Authority to process complaints against real estate agents and com
Jazial Crossley
Tue, 12 Oct 2010
The Real Estate Agents Authority is proposing to raise the amount it charges real estate agents to be licensed from $495 a year to $760.
The funds are used to pay for the Real Estate Agents Authority to process complaints against real estate agents and companies within the industry as well as approving agents’ licenses.
The industry authority is still in its infancy after coming into power in November.
It has been flooded with 693 complaints received so far. There have been 12 appeals, 144 complaint assement committee hearings and in 11 cases it decided unsatisfactory conduct had taken place. It now has 461 complaints are under investigation.
The Real Estate Agents Authority said in a statement of intent that it needed to double its income in 2011 from $2.82 million to $6.63 million, hence the proposed licensing fee hike.
However the number of complaints it receives has fallen from 55 a week earlier this year to only 14 a week.
Real Estate Institute of New Zealand chairwoman Rosanne Meo said it was strongly opposed to the 50% levy increase.
“Real Estate Institute of New Zealand is committed to working constructively with the Real Estate Agents Authority, and is supportive of the establishment of a regulatory body for our industry. We cannot support a significantly large increase in levies being imposed on an already stressed industry,” Ms Meo said.
“We are very concerned about the timing and the quantum of the proposed levy increase. We challenge the basis of the proposed levy increase and regard it as neither fair nor reasonable.”
The Real Estate Agents Authority has struggled in its first year of operations with its chief executive Janet Meziner quitting in July six months after her appointment, and police launched a criminal behaviour investigation into its senior manager Jon Moss.
A replacement chief executive still had not been found, three months after Ms Meziner finished her employment at the authority.
Real Estate Agents Authority spokesman Dan Ormond did not return NBR calls before press time.
Jazial Crossley
Tue, 12 Oct 2010
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