Enforcement will be the best way to resolve the concern if it is a serious concern and does not fit into one of the above categories. Generally these will be concerns where there was an intention to breach the law or the relevant Rules and Regulations, the licensee has previously engaged in similar behaviour or there is a wider public interest in the alleged behaviour being fully investigated and considered. Serious concerns will be investigated and in most cases be heard and dealt with by a Complaints Assessment Committee (CAC) as a formal complaint.
What happens and when:
- We will advise the complainant, in writing, that their concern will be referred to a CAC as a formal complaint. We aim to do this within 5 working days of receiving your concern.
- We may do some preliminary investigation into the complaint so that the CAC has a good understanding of all the matters relating to the complaint.
- We will advise the licensee and the complainant when the complaint will first be considered by a CAC. The licensee involved will be sent a copy of the complaint. The complainant's personal details (with the exception of their name and and address) will be removed from the information provided to the licensee.
- The CAC will meet and consider the complaint and will decide whether to inquire further into the matter. We aim to have this meeting within 20 working days of receiving the information from the complainant, however this will depend on any initial investigations we may do.
At this first meeting the CAC will usually just consider the information provided and make one of the following decisions based on that information:
* the CAC may decide to inquire further
* the CAC may decide not to inquire if it thinks the real estate agents did nothing wrong, the complaint is inconsequential or was not made in good faith.We will let the licensee and the complainant know what the CAC decides.
- If the CAC decides to inquire further, an investigation will usually be carried out by our investigators. The CAC will meet again to consider the information gathered in the investigation. The licensee complained about may be required to appear before the CAC to make an explanation. The CAC can also ask the licnesee or anyone else to provide further information to help it to carry out its inquiry.
If the CAC finds that the behaviour of the licensee is unsatisfactory conduct i.e. falls short of what would usually be expected, is unacceptable, incompetent or negligent, or breaches the 2008 Act, regulations or rules, it can make one or more of a number of orders including:
* censuring or reprimanding the person
* requiring that person to apologise
* requiring that person to undergo further training or education
* ordering that person to reduce, cancel of refund fees or fix an error or omission
* fining that person up to $10,000 if an individual or $20,000 if a companyordering that person to pay costs to the complainant.
- If the CAC considers there are reasonable grounds to believe the conduct is misconduct, i.e. disgraceful, seriously incompetent or seriously negligent, or is a wilful or reckless breach of the 2008 Act, regulations or rules, it can lay charges of misconduct with the Real Estate Agents Disciplinary Tribunal (the Tribunal).
The licensee and the complainant will be told if the matter is being sent to the Tribunal and both parties will be kept informed about the tribunal process, which will involve a public hearing.
We aim to resolve the complaint within 32 weeks of receiving it. Very complex cases can take this long, or even longer, due to the amount of investigative work required and the CAC having to meet more than once before making a decision.
You can appeal the CAC decision
If the licensee or the complainant are not happy with the decision they can appeal to the Tribunal.
The decision may be published:
CACs usually publish their decisions. Decisions are published to ensure the disciplinary process remains transparent, independent and effective. Publication of decisions is also good for standard setting and information sharing.
These decisions are published on our website and are not published until the appeal period ends. The appeal period is 20 working days from the date of the decision.
The complainants name will usually be removed from the decision document before publishing.
