Remember when regulators clamped-down on property spruikers – most notably Henry Kaye – in the wake of the 2003-04 property bubble? Well it’s happening all over again, according to ABC News:
Consumer regulators across Australia are launching a national campaign against spruikers, who run get-rich-quick seminars.
Consumer Protection WA is leading the national campaign, amid concerns people are attending free seminars only to be pressured in to paying thousands of dollars for dodgy deals…
Ms Bond is the former chief executive of the Consumer Action Law Centre, and said spruikers were teaching people how to make money out of desperate buyers and sellers.
“Desperate buyers who enter into an agreement to pay off a home and they nearly always fall over, we see people who are desperate to sell their home and end up in a deal they don’t expect that they get a bad deal out of,” she said.
“With these rent-to-buy or vendor finance deals, the buyers and sellers are really exposed.
“They’re often very vulnerable, there’s a lot of risks and they’re often not really protected by the law.”
Miles Larbey from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) said unscrupulous operators had been put on notice.
“ASIC assesses every report of misconduct it receives about such operators and there are serious consequences for property spruikers who break the law by providing unlicensed financial or credit advice,” he said.
“ASIC strongly supports the campaign warning investors about property spruikers.”
History doesn’t repeat, but it sure does rhyme.
