Roy Eric: Real Estate Agents Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Roy Eric: Real Estate Agents Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:649;Page:18426] 
ERIC ROY (National—Invercargill) 
: 
 I have become kind of immersed in this bill. It is a fascinating over-prescription. In a lot of ways it is a bit like using a bulldozer to weed the radishes with a heap of prescription and overbearing high-handedness. We are on Part 5 “Duties relating to real estate agency work” and I am drawn firstly to clause 119 which requires that any money in respect of any transaction be held for 10 working days. But what if both parties do not want it to be held for 10 working days? In the last transaction that I was involved in—a rather modest transaction—both the vendor and the purchaser wanted a much quicker turn-round. On the one hand the vendor wanted to go unconditional on another option and needed the money and on the other hand the purchaser—moi—wanted to avoid having money sitting in a GST situation for 6 months until it could be retrieved. In this bill we have a prescription that would totally write off the opportunity for common sense when both the vendor and the purchaser want an alternative. No doubt the Minister in the chair the Hon Clayton Cosgrove will now seek some advice and come forth with a very good explanation as to why that is there. 
Then I am drawn to clause 121 “Agents’ trust accounts to be audited”. That is a really good idea. If I was a real estate agent and I had an audit account called say the “Spencer Trust” or something like that I would really want it to be audited because of its association with other names that might not be quite so wholesome. So I am quite in favour of that. 
Then we come to the latter part of Part 5. I was interested to learn from the comments made by my colleague Kate Wilkinson that all of the provisions in regard to auctions are to be withdrawn. I ask the Minister whether that is right—he could perhaps nod. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: Yes. 
ERIC ROY 
: Thank you; I commend the Minister for a sensible outcome. I am not sure why he did not seek some advice before those provisions were put in. 
This is where I have had some trouble with this bill; it has been thrown together with all kinds of aspersions cast about skulduggery shysters and every other kind of wrong involvement in the real estate industry when in reality there have been some serious overstatements. Can I confess to actually being an auctioneer? I was going to have some very stern words to say about those provisions if they had not been withdrawn. 
I will make this point for a start. There are a series of mechanisms by which a person can sell a property and it is up to the vendor to decide what mechanism to use. The vendor may not want an auction; there is sale by tender private treaty or negotiation. There is a whole range of things so I have to say that I was very very disappointed in the Minister when I saw those heavy-handed requirements about auctions included. The very nature of an auction is that it is about nuance and entertainment and it is actually about engagement in a process of negotiation verbally so it was disappointing to have had these prescriptions about bidders records times at which people cannot arrive etc. 
I tell the Minister that if I were selling something and an auction was underway and someone rolled up in a Rolls Royce—or let us say a red Hummer or something like that—and wanted to bid and went on the bidders record I would have been distressed if that provision removing the opportunity for someone to bid in that way had not been withdrawn. Then of course— 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: But you’re a happy man. 
ERIC ROY 
: In this little regard. I commend the Minister for dropping out his absolutely hopeless and heavy-handed series of prescriptions about auctions. Auctions do not play a huge part in sales. Quite often they are set up to draw some attention to a property and identify those people with whom negotiations can take place. But I was just wondering what the mischief was. I mean how many people do a runner and are not around after they have had the bid? I think the Minister would struggle to come up with some numbers on that. He was happy to give us some examples before—two only—on another part of the bill when we were asking— 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: If you yield I’ll give you a lot more examples. 
ERIC ROY 
: I ask the Minister which people do runners. I am not sure that that actually is the case.