Karen Ristevski’s former Avondale Heights home.
Laws that could land dodgy real estate agents or vendors in prison for failing to disclose a murder, meth lab, flammable cladding or asbestos at a home are yet to be tested, more than a year after being created.
In March last year, laws were changed to force home sellers to reveal these material facts or risk penalties including prison sentences.
Consumer Affairs Victoria received 68 contacts relating to agents failing to disclose information or making misleading omissions in the 2020-21 financial year, but none led to a prosecution.
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Murderer John Sharpe’s former home in Mornington.
The Herald Sun understands these contacts could also have outed vendors who hadn’t revealed home additions completed without a required building permit, nearby sinkholes or potentially even signs a home was haunted.
Real Estate Institute of Victoria president Leah Calnan said her organisation advised all its members to “go above and beyond the mandated material fact disclosures”, particularly given the harsh penalties included imprisonment.
“Disclosure of material facts is critical to a transparent property transaction,” Ms Calnan said.
“However, it is important that the ‘fact’ can be supported with evidence and is not just an individual’s opinion.”
Karen Ristevski.
In August 2020, the Oakley Drive, Avondale Heights, home where Karen Ristevski was slain by her husband sold or $1.27m. Barry Plant Moonee Valley agents, including director Bill Karp, informed prospective buyers of its history.
Before the new rules came into effect, Gary Peer Real Estate sold the North Rd, Brighton East, home where gangland figure Mario Condello was shot dead in 2006, and disclosed the crime despite not being required to.
A police mugshot of Mario Rocco Condello.
In a recent Gary Peer TV online video discussion, the firm’s bosses Gary Peer and Phillip Kingston debated if there might be a further duty to disclose ghosts and paranormal activity.
Mr Kingston told the Sunday Herald Sun he believed the majority of agents acted ethically and disclosed if a horrible crime had occurred at a home – and if he listed a property associated with a ghost, he expected he would “be in trouble if I didn’t make it known”.
Mr Peer told the Sunday Herald Sun while homes where a murder occurred were rare, those with ghosts would be even rarer.
The Stonington Mansion sold for $52.5m in Malvern is reputedly haunted by the child ghost of Christopher Rous, who died of leukaemia and was buried in its grounds in 1925.
Stonington Mansion in Malvern — Victoria’s most expensive residential sale — is potentially haunted.
The former home of murdered designer Stuart Rattle.
Other high-profile murder homes include the Prince St, Mornington, house where John Sharpe killed his pregnant wife Anna Hemp and daughter Gracie, which last sold for $525,000 in 2006.
In 2015, the home where designer Stuart Rattle was murdered by his partner sold for $2.05m. The figure was $150,000 above the price guide and prompted Thomson Malvern auctioneer John Chartres to comment that the crime hadn’t affected the sale price.
And the site of the Easey St murders in Collingwood has also changed hands a few times since Suzanne Armstrong and Susan Bartlett were murdered inside it in the ’70s, most recently for $1.095m in 2017.
The Block turned this sleazy motel into luxury apartments.
Inside ‘The Blocktagon’ now.
The show also transformed the notorious Gatwick Hotel. (AAP Image/Stefan Postles)
Notorious addresses bought and renovated by The Block might also trigger mandatory disclosures, with their South Yarra apartment project dubbed the Blocktagon the scene of a brutal rape – allegedly by vampire gigolo Shane Chartres-Abbott, who was shot dead while on trial for the crime.
The Gatwick Hotel, also overhauled by the show, was a notorious haven for the ill-at-ease and regularly attended by police for criminal matters, including a man who was bashed and kicked to death in a corridor.
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Failing to disclose a murder, meth lab, flammable cladding or asbestos at a home could land dodgy agents and vendors in jail under laws introduced last year. Here’s where things stand.
The post Material facts laws, Victoria: Murder house laws never used appeared first on realestate.com.au.
