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Category: Consumer Protection / Housing Industry

'Dodgy' property spruikers targeted in national campaign

Sunday, 22 May 2016 04:02:51 | Amy Bainbridge

Consumer Protection WA is leading the campaign against spruikers. (Supplied)

Consumer regulators across Australia are launching a national campaign against spruikers, who run get-rich-quick seminars.

Key points:

  • Consumer advocates are concerned people are being pressured into dodgy deals
  • The spruikers being targeted often push rent-to-buy housing schemes
  • The campaign warns people about the spruikers offering free seminars

Consumer Protection WA is leading the national campaign, amid concerns people are attending free seminars only to be pressured in to paying thousands of dollars for dodgy deals.

Consumer Protection WA's Director of Property Industries Stephen Meahger said spruikers must comply with Australian consumer law.

"We always are concerned in any spruiking when you see a big, glossy ad or a full page ad in the paper that says that it's a free seminar," Mr Meahger told the ABC.

"There's nothing that's free, and clearly if you're running ads that size you must be getting money some way."

Spruikers often teach their students how to set up rent-to-buy housing deals, which offers people who do not have a home deposit the option of purchasing a home after paying above-market rent for a set period of time.

Do you know more about this story? Email investigations@abc.net.au

However rent-to-buy schemes have come under sharp criticism from consumer advocates, who say the legal standing of the deals is questionable and leaves vulnerable people exposed.

Carolyn Bond has worked with consumers whose rent-to-buy schemes have failed, leaving them with nothing.

Ms Bond is the former chief executive of the Consumer Action Law Centre, and said spruikers were teaching people how to make money out of desperate buyers and sellers.

"Desperate buyers who enter into an agreement to pay off a home and they nearly always fall over, we see people who are desperate to sell their home and end up in a deal they don't expect that they get a bad deal out of," she said.

"With these rent-to-buy or vendor finance deals, the buyers and sellers are really exposed.

"They're often very vulnerable, there's a lot of risks and they're often not really protected by the law."

Miles Larbey from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) said unscrupulous operators had been put on notice.

"ASIC assesses every report of misconduct it receives about such operators and there are serious consequences for property spruikers who break the law by providing unlicensed financial or credit advice," he said.

"ASIC strongly supports the campaign warning investors about property spruikers."

AustraliaPlus


 

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