Property Occupations Act 2014

A licensee or real estate salesperson must not represent to someone else anything that is false or misleading relating to the letting, exchange or sale of real property.Maximum penalty—540 penalty units.

Without limiting subsection (1), a licensee or real estate salesperson must not, in connection with the sale, or the possible sale, of an interest in real property or in connection with the promotion of the sale of an interest in real property, represent to someone else anything that is false or misleading relating to—

the value of the real property at the date of sale; or

the potential income from the leasing of the land; or

if the land has been previously sold, the date of the sale and the consideration for the sale; or

how the purchase of the real property may affect the incidence of income taxation on the buyer.

Without limiting subsection (1) or (2), a representation is taken, for the subsection, to be false or misleading if it would reasonably tend to lead to a belief in the existence of a state of affairs that does not in fact exist, whether or not the representation indicates that the state of affairs does exist.

Also, if a person makes a representation relating to a matter and the person does not have reasonable grounds for making the representation, the representation is taken to be misleading.

The onus of establishing the person had reasonable grounds for making the representation is on the person.

It is not a defence to a prosecution under subsection (1) or (2) for the defendant to prove that an agreement with the person was terminated or that the person did not enter into an agreement because of the representation.

This section does not limit another Act or law about false or misleading representations.

In this section—false or misleading, for a representation, includes the wilful concealment of a material fact in the representation.