A real estate agent has apologised and admitted he made a mistake after an illegal rental listing sparked backlash.
The listing for a three-bedroom home in Bellbowrie west of Brisbane invited prospective tenants to bid for the opportunity to secure the lease.
‘Offers over $750 would be considered,’ the Harcourts Success ad states.
Screenshots of the listing went viral online, where Aussies were quick to point out its blatant illegality.
Queensland banned rental bidding and required rentals to be listed with fixed prices in 2024.
Under the new legislation, it is an offence for a property to be advertised with a rent range and agents are not allowed to accept offers higher than the advertised price.
The listing has since been updated to show a weekly rental price of $800.
‘We sincerely apologise for the mistake that happened. We didn’t intend to advertise this property without a price or wanted to invite rental bidding,’ Harcourts Success director Praveen Ha told news.com.au.
A real estate agency in Brisbane has been slammed for listing a property which encouraged prospective tenants to bid for the lease
Director of Real Estate at Harcourts Success real estate agency, Praveen Sha, has apologised for the error and clarified that it was the result of a computer glitch combined with human error
Aussies on Reddit banded together to slam the ad for its audacity.
‘This really boils my blood,’ one user in the r/Brisbane group said.
‘As a property manager myself this is disgusting. This is why our industry has such a low trust relationship with the public,’ a second added.
Hundreds more slammed it as ‘dodgy’, ‘cooked’ and ‘unbelievable’.
Mr Sha said the error was caused by a ‘computer glitch, and a bit of human negligence’.
He said the homeowner expected rent to be over $750 and the listing inadvertently went up requesting offers over that
He blamed the blunder after a miscommunication.
AI used by the real estate agency also listed the property a day earlier than it should have which prevented anyone from catching the error before it was posted online.
‘This shouldn’t have happened if we had not relied on AI for write up, and be more vigilant on what’s typed,’ Mr Sha told the publication.
The listing for the three-bedroom Bellbowrie property, between Brisbane and Ipswich, has since been re-posted with a firm $800 per week rental price
Mr Sha has been in contact with the Queensland Residential Tenancies Authority to explain what caused the accidental listing
The listing was only visible on RealEstate.com for about an hour before someone from Harcourts Success had it removed and amended.
Regardless, it still breached the Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act, according to the Queensland Residential Tenancies Authority (RTA).
The agency’s Compliance and Enforcement team will now contact the property manager in order to discuss the incident.
Mr Sha confirmed that he had been in contact with the state’s RTA to explain the situation but that he will ultimately accept whatever outcome it decides to pursue.
‘Bottom line, we are responsible for what has happened and we sincerely apologise for the mistake,’ Mr Sha said.
Punishments for the listing could include a ‘Notice of Non-Compliance’ issued by the RTA which would simply let the agency off with a warning.
The maximum penalty however is 50 penalty units, with a single penalty unit in Queensland being equivalent to a $161.30 fine.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Praveen Sha and the Queensland Residential Tenancies Authority for comment.
