Real Estate Reforms

 

Woohoo…we now have a date for the implementation for the Real Estate Reforms – it’s Monday 23rd March 2020.

Last week, NSW Fair Trading issued documents (drafts and for public consultation purposes) – they are not the final documents. We are expecting the finalised documents in November this year, after the consultation period and our opportunity to comment by 2nd October.

We at ACOP have now reviewed all of the documentation (50 pages) and have prepared a summary of how this relates to agents in NSW and how the Reforms will affect the licensing and training programs for all agents in our industry. We have also loaded a couple of videos onto our website (short and long versions) that talk through the written summary. So let’s have a look at the major changes that are coming:

Licence Categories

Currently we have two levels of authority to practice in NSW. We have Certificate of Registration holders (or entry level) employees and we have licensed agents. This will change to three levels of authority:

• Firstly, Assistant Agents (Certificate of Registration holders)
• Then we will have Class 2 licence holders (equivalent to current licence holders)
• And the new category is the Class 1 licence holders (or the LIC category)

When the Reforms are implemented next March, it is proposed that there will be just three categories of licence – Real Estate, Stock & Station and Strata Management. There is no change to the Stock & Station or the Strata Management licence. However, the new Real Estate licence will incorporate the old Business Agents licence, the Buyer’s Agents Licence and the On-Site Residential Property Managers licence.

People who currently hold a full licence in any of the categories will automatically transfer across to a Class 2 licence relevant to their existing category.

If you are currently the nominated Licensee-In-Charge of an agency or corporation, then when you make application for a Class 1 licence, you will automatically transition to the new Class 1 licence category.

If you are currently a licensed agent, but NOT the nominated LIC, then you wish to make application for a Class 1 licence when the Reforms commence, you will need to meet the new application requirements, which include holding a full licence for two (2) years, providing evidence of your work experience over that time, and you have completed the Diploma of Property (Agency Management).

Now, remember that to disburse funds from a trust account, you must hold a Class 1 licence. So this means that other team members can prepare the entries into a trust account, but only a Class 1 licence holder can actually disburse the funds. So, mid-month, month end, paying tradies, paying accounts for landlords or owners corporations, paying vendors for property settlements – the final push of that button for the disbursement of funds can only be done by a Class 1 licence holder.

Now for Certificate of Registration holders…

If you hold a Certificate of Registration at the time that the Reforms commence next March 2020, then at your next renewal date after the Reforms, you will be issued with a four year Certificate. This means that you will have four (4) years to obtain the qualification required to make application for a Class 2 licence.

There are changes coming for CPD as well…

The point system will be a thing of the past. So, no more 12 points to be compliant. With the implementation of the Reforms, CPD will be about hours of training. The CPD year will be from March to March each year, and whilst you will still renew your licence on whatever date it currently falls, your CPD year will change from March to March.

For Certificate of Registration holders (Assistant Agents) – your requirement for ongoing training is that you complete the three (3) Units of Competency each year towards your licence qualification. There are no other CPD requirements for Assistant Agents.

For Class 2 licence holders, you will need to complete six (6) hours of CPD each year, which will consist of three (3) hours of compulsory CPD topics PLUS three (3) hours of elective CPD topics.

For Class 1 licence holders, you will need to complete nine (9) hours of CPD each year, consisting of the same six (6) hours as Class 2 licence holders, plus an additional three (3) hours of CPD topics related to business practices. Note that the additional three (3) hours of business related topics for Class 1 licence holders, will only come into effect in March 2021, so for the first year, it’s six (6) hours for all licence holders.

There are some other Significant Changes included in the Reforms. Watch the extended video or read our summary document for these amendments.

Now, we don’t want agents to stress about the changes.

We at ACOP are all over this – we’ve been doing this for 17 years now. As the changes come into place, we will make sure that we inform you through these newsletters and videos, and naturally through our weekly Facebook live posts on Wednesday afternoons.

If you need information about obtaining the qualifications required for either a Class 1 Licence or a Class 2 Licence – speak with one of our Training Administrators or go to our website for more information.