The winter months provide an opportunity to make sure swimming pools and fences are safe and in good repair so you're prepared when the weather heats up.

This year, when checking pool fencing during property inspections or when completing property condition reports, we urge you to pay particular attention to gate latches.

A voluntary recall is currently underway for a striker component contained in several pool latches that were sold by Bunnings.

The recalled striker component does not comply with Australian standards and can cause the gate to be locked in the open position, posing a potential drowning risk for children.

A recent Ombudsman’s report found that between 2006 and 2015, the majority of drowning incidents involving children occurred in swimming pools.

Find out more about the recall of unsafe pool gate latches.

We encourage licensed agents to check with their employees to ensure their CPD compliance is up-to-date.

Real estate agents have a responsibility under the Code of Conduct to ensure that they, and their employees, comply with their annual educational requirements by completing at least 10 CPD points each calendar year. To date, only 36% of all current licensees and registrants have completed the mandatory activities for 2018.  Only 14% have completed their elective activities, with 45% of licensees and registrants yet to undertake any elective activity.

If your employees haven’t completed their CPD points, their registration/triennial certificate may not be renewed and as an employer, you may be  breaching your responsibilities to properly supervise staff.

You can find a list of training providers and their contact details on our website. Please do not contact Consumer Protection to make bookings.

Distance learning

We acknowledge the delay in making the mandatory activities available online for licensees and registrants who live more than 100km from any of the places the course is being delivered.

The online courses are expected to be available in August so please accept our apologies and ensure that you make time available in the second half of the year for these activities.

Consumer Protection has completed the annual real estate agent audit program for this year. Overall, it is clear that most agents are meeting their legislative requirements. The majority of real estate and business agents lodged their audit report or statutory declaration on time, with minimal serious problems identified by the auditor.

However, there are 11 audit reports and a large number of statutory declarations yet to be received. Those matters have been referred to our Investigation and Compliance team to take the appropriate action. Non-compliance may result in an administrative warning or prosecution in more serious cases.

An assessment of the audit reports received identified just under a third having been qualified by the auditors. The most common issues were minor administrative mistakes and failing to perform monthly reconciliations. Keep these issues in mind so that you can avoid them next year.

Tips to assist you next year

• Make sure you include all REBA trust accounts, including interest bearing trust accounts and strata trust accounts.
• Make sure any witnesses to statutory declarations are authorised
• Arrange your auditor well ahead of time, especially if you are making a change.
• Confirm all trust account names contain the required information and are correctly designated at the bank.
• If you change any details, including your email address, please notify us.