Hooray for last week’s death to the requirement that sellers and agents provide sustainability declarations to potential buyers and when advertising residential property.

Transitional rules in the Treasury (Cost of Living) and other Legislation Amendment Act 2012 make clear that the change is not retrospective and a buyer who incurs loss through a false or misleading statement given before the June 27 cut over date could still seek compensation from a seller.

A good start but what about the laundry list of other essential reforms the real estate industry urgently needs to remove the administrative burden it faces from overly complex compliance.

The current multitude of forms and disclosure is as confusing to buyers as it is useless as a consumer protection measure.

Send the Premier a checklist of all the issues that require urgent fixing.

The many others are:-

- Abolition of the form 30 C statement, incorporating a warning into the residential contract and elimination of the PAMDA requirement for “attention directing” notifications are top of the list;
- Land Sales Act disclosure must be incorporated into the one single buyer disclosure statement;
- Tripwire form filling requirements for forms 27c & 22a etc – with their associated triple whammy of agent risk: no commission, being sued & fines – have to go;
- BCCMA forms – s 206 disclosure; the BCCM 14 warning statement and CMS – must be incorporated into one single buyer disclosure statement;
- The PAMDA “residential property” definition must be clarified to remove it as a source of dispute;
- A single event disclosure requirement for options rather than needing compliance BOTH at the time of agreement and every time the option is exercised;

The prohibition on lawyers, who have even the remotest business connection to the agent, giving cooling off advice, must be removed;
Pool safety warnings must be incorporated into the one single buyer disclosure statement;
Tree branch compliance must be incorporated into the one single buyer disclosure statement.