Access and Interpret Ethical Practice in Real Estate

This document provides information on accessing and interpreting ethical practice in real estate. It covers topics such as legislation, the role of the Australia Competition and Consumer Commission, consumer protection requirements, risks for consumers and agencies, penalties for breaches of ethical practice, and strategies to manage risks. The document also discusses the impact of fraudulent activities on consumers and agencies, the role of procedures, forms, and documents in managing risk, and strategies to respond to discrepancies in ethical practices. It concludes with information on communicating consumer rights and obtaining advice about ethical practices.

CPPREP4002 - Access and interpret ethical practice in real estate (Release 1)
Assessment Questions
RTO 32426
CPPREP4002 - Access and interpret ethical practice in real estate (Release 1)

What you need to do:
Answer the questions below by writing in the space provided.
You are required to answer all questions correctly. If correct, you will see ‘competent’
written in your grades section next to the assessment name. If incorrect, you will see ‘not
yet competent’ and receive feedback in your grades section and you will be required to
resubmit your work.
What you will need:
Use the material provided in your learners guides and additional resources section as well as
research materials such as books, internet, magazines, workplace documentation etc.
Remember that the assessment is completely self-paced and open book, so you are able to
use whatever resources you have to answer the questions.
What you need to submit:
Your answers to these questions.
CPPREP4002 - Access and interpret ethical practice in real estate (Release 1)

Assessment Questions
Question 1
Complete the following table by inserting the name of at least 2 pieces of legislation
relevant to the areas listed as relevant to your state/territory and identify whether the
legislation is at the state or federal level (in brackets).
AREA NAME OF THE ACTS/REGULATIONS
REAL ESTATE AGENTS AND
LICENSING
Australian Capital Territory - Agents Act 2003 (State level)
Real Estate and Business Agents Act 1978 (WA) (State level)
Property, Stock and Business Agents Act 2002 (NSW)
PROPERTY SALES Transfer of Land Act 1958 (VIC)
Civil Law (Sale of Residential Property) Act 2003
PROPERTY MANAGEMENT
Secret Commissions Act 1905
Community Land Management Regulation 2018
PRIVACY
Privacy Act 1988
The Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act
2012
Privacy Regulation 2013
FAIR TRADING AND CONSUMER
PROTECTION
Competition and Consumer Act 2010
NSW Fair Trading Act 1987
DISCRIMINATION
Disability Discrimination Act 1992
Age Discrimination Act 2004
WORK HEALTH AND
SAFETY/OCCUPATIONAL
HEALTH AND SAFETY
Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Federal level)
Occupational Safety and Health Regulations 1996 (State level)
ENVIRONMENTAL
(SUSTAINABILITY) Environment Protection and Biodiversity
CPPREP4002 - Access and interpret ethical practice in real estate (Release 1)

Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) (Federal level)
Protection of Environment Operations Act 1997 (NSW) (State
level)
EMPLOYMENT AND INDUSTRIAL
RELATIONS Fair Work Act 2009
Fair Work Regulations 2009
FOREIGN INVESTMENT
Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act 1975
Register of Foreign Ownership of Water or Agricultural Land
Act 2015
SECRET COMMISSIONS
(ONLY 1 REQUIRED)
Crimes Act 1958
Secret Commissions Act 1905 (Federal level)
Question 2
What is the role of the Australia Competition and Consumer Commission?
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is a commonwealth statutory
authority which is independent and plays a role enforcing Competition and Consumer Act,
2010 along with various additional legislations, fair trading, promoting competition as well
as regulating national infrastructure in order to provide benefit to all the Australians. It
promotes honesty and competition between consumers and businesses and its main
responsibility is to make sure that businesses and individuals comply with Australian
competition, consumer protection and fair trading laws administered under Competition
and Consumer Act, 2010. Apart from this, the role of ACCC is to increase awareness
among consumers regarding their rights under act, educate and inform businesses
regarding their responsibilities when making monetary claims and investigate and take
actions against those businesses who are engaged in practices which contravene the act
(Parker, & Evans, (2018).
Question 3
Consider the relevance of consumer protection requirements and identify (2) risks for the
following
3.1 Consumer (Buyer/tenant/Seller or landlord)
3.2 Risk to the Agency
CPPREP4002 - Access and interpret ethical practice in real estate (Release 1)

3.3 Risk to the Industry
3.4 Personal Risk
Consumer Protection is defined as a practice of safeguarding consumers of goods and services against
unfair practices in market. It helps in protecting the interest of consumers against the goods and services
that are hazardous to their health, property and life. It enables them to make good choices on the basis
of interest and preventing them from being misled on mistreated by organisations.
Risks:
3.1 Consumer (Buyer/tenant/Seller or landlord)
 Being misled by businesses
 Risk to health
3.1 Risk to the Agency
 Financial risk
 Compliance risk
3.2 Risk to the Industry
 Market fluctuations
 Risk of competition and product substitution
3.3 Personal Risk
 Income risk
 Investment risk
Question 4
What is an ‘Authority to act’?
'Authority to act' can be stated as a document which renders another individual with an
authority to act on behalf of one individual. It is for a single occasion instead of ongoing
authority across multiple matters. It is not defined as legal document and is distinct from
power of attorney.
Question 5
In 100 – 200 words, explain the impact of fraudulent activities on consumer and agency.
Impact of fraudulent activities on consumer and agency:
CPPREP4002 - Access and interpret ethical practice in real estate (Release 1)

Fraud is a pervasive issue with agencies and consumers requiring to do more in order to
protect themselves from hackers who constantly enhance their attacks from social
perspective and technical perspective. In Australia, fraud is one of the rapidly growing
crime and costs the agencies and consumers in excess. Fraud impacts highly on the
experience of consumers along with the reputation of agency. However, the growing
scale of fraud attacks has maximised the awareness of threat and set a new standard of
expectations of consumers to be protected from such kind of activities as well as notified
in the event of breach. The agencies are the desirable targets of fraud due to potential
size of prize as well as sheer volume of transactions at disposal of fraudster. The highly
publicized incidents of fraud in September 2010 and April 2011 outcomes in properties
being sold without consent and knowledge of lawful property owners in Western
Australia. These sales were undertaken through the agents of real estate after being
contracted through criminals impersonating true owners. Fraudulent activities directly
impact on the trust level of consumers on the agency and its operations (Salzman &
Zwinkels, (2017).
Question 6
Identify a minimum of four risks that may impact on an agency. Outline the strategies that
you would recommend to manage each risk.
Risk Strategies
Omission
In order to manage this risk, real estate agency needs to itemized all
the things involved in sale of home so that all the consumers are on
similar page with similar expectations. Seller needs to ensure that
they are not over promising to consumers.
Failing to deliver service In order to manage the risk and deliver effective services to
customers, the real estate agency requires to charge an adequate
amount so that all the clients get satisfied with what they get and
and don't think that they were manipulated by the agent
CPPREP4002 - Access and interpret ethical practice in real estate (Release 1)

Wrongful discrimination
It is very common risk in real estate industry which agents are
faced. The can be sued about claims that house was not shown to
them because of their religion, gender or race. So, for managing this
risk it is necessary for the real estate agents that they are not
discriminating people on the basis of any dimension including
religion, caste, gender, race etc. and show their houses to all the
people irrespective of these dimensions.
Accidents The risk of unforeseen accidents is common in real estate
industry such as visitor falls as well as injuries. In order to
manage this risk, the real estate professionals required to
consider general liability insurance, that renders
protection from third party claims for injury as well as
related medical cost.
Question 7
List and explain (2) penalties or disciplinary actions that can be taken by the Office of Fair
Trading for breaches of codes and standards for ethical practice in real estate.
CPPREP4002 - Access and interpret ethical practice in real estate (Release 1)

The penalties or disciplinary actions which can be taken through office of fair trading for
beaches of standards and codes for ethical practice in real estate industry includes:
1. License suspension: the office of fair trading suspends the license for the time period
no longer than unexpired term of certificate/ license for breach of codes and standards. It
may impose suspension for over 60 days’ post to serving a show cause notice, in case if
the suspension is associated to failure to lodge audit report of agent or the disciplinary
actions ground are serious.
2. Disqualification: the office of fair trading declares an individual as disqualified under
the act from holding a certificate or license, either for a specified period of time or
permanently (Bencardino & Nesticò, (2017).
Question 8
Explain the role of procedures, forms and documents in managing risk of unethical practice.
Procedures, forms and documents plays crucial role in managing risk of unethical practice.
Unethical behaviour damage the credibility of company, pausing to lose consumers.
Procedures, documents and forms helps in protecting business from losses and mitigate
the risks in case of lawsuit. This involves confidentiality, privacy and security procedures
which helps in controlling risks. This provides standards from which the legal system,
procedures, government legislators can benchmark the practices and helps in improving
CPPREP4002 - Access and interpret ethical practice in real estate (Release 1)

them and ensuring that no unethical practices takes place. These helps in determining
the hazards, assessing them properly, controlling them by taking appropriate measures
and review the risk control effectively.
Question 9
Apply your learning about ethics and explain (3) strategies you could undertake to respond
to concerns about discrepancies between personal and/or agency practice ethical practices
and those outlined in the standards for real estate ethical practice.
Real estate sector encourages high ethics level in business practice in order to preserve as
well as promote the right to own, utilise, exchange as well as transfer real property. It is
the duty of agents’ interest and rights of buying and selling public. In order to respond to
concerns regarding discrepancies between agency or personal practice ethical practices,
one of the strategy is to abide with all the laws and regulations in real estate sector in
order to perform business operations effectively (Jackson, (2017). Apart from this,
unethical practices must be prohibited in all dimensions of real estate practice, involving
property disclosure, inducements, contract facilitation, advertising, listing agreements
and holding of earnest money. In addition to this, it is necessary to avoid discrimination in
the transactions of real estate and any act of exaggeration, misinterpretation and
intentional action of deception. All these strategies assist in responding to concerns
regarding discrepancies.
Question 10
In 50-100 words Describe how the agency can clearly communicate to the consumer their
rights and responsibilities, with regards to complaints resolution processes
The agency can communicate to consumers regarding their rights and responsibilities in
regards to complaint resolution process by utilising appropriate communication tools like
advertisement, websites, emails etc. Proper communication of rights and make them
aware about dumbbell help in protecting them from fraudulent activities and preserve
their interest. Apart from this, the complaint or dispute with estate agent can be resolved
CPPREP4002 - Access and interpret ethical practice in real estate (Release 1)

through complaint page (Mannay, (2015).
Question 11
List (2) sources that you can access to obtain advice about ethical practices.
The sources which can access in order to obtain advice about ethical practices includes:
 QLD: REIQ
 ACT: REIACT
 NSW: REINSW
 REI Australia
 NREFA
 State’s Office of Fair Trading
 Journals and newspapers which have sections or articles devoted to real estate
 Industry newsletters and journals
 Franchise newsletters & information
References
Mannay, D. (2015). Visual, narrative and creative research methods: Application, reflection and
ethics. Routledge.
Bencardino, M., & Nesticò, A. (2017). Demographic changes and real estate values. A quantitative
model for analyzing the urban-rural linkages. Sustainability, 9(4), 536.
Del Giudice, V., De Paola, P., Forte, F., & Manganelli, B. (2017). Real estate appraisals with Bayesian
approach and Markov chain hybrid Monte Carlo method: an application to a central urban
area of Naples. Sustainability, 9(11), 2138.
Salzman, D., & Zwinkels, R. C. (2017). Behavioral real estate. Journal of Real Estate Literature, 25(1),
77-106.
Harcup, T. (2015). Journalism: principles and practice. Sage.
Jackson, S. (2017). Enduring and persistent injustices in water access in Australia. Natural
Resources and Environmental Justice: Australian Perspectives, 121-132.
Parker, C., & Evans, A. (2018). Inside lawyers' ethics. Cambridge University Press.
CPPREP4002 - Access and interpret ethical practice in real estate (Release 1)

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CPPREP4002 - Access and interpret ethical practice in real estate (Release 1)

CPPREP4002 - Access and interpret ethical practice in real estate (Release 1)