Monday, 1 March 2010

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Many Real Estate agents and homeowners in the Burnett are now treating the Bligh government’s new housing sustainability forms with contempt by simply signing and dating an essentially “blank” form, Member for Burnett Rob Messenger said today.

Mr Messenger said many Real Estate Agents and homeowners follow the official government advice to the letter and “Don’t tick because they don’t know” in each of the 20 questions and thereby avoiding the two and 10 thousand dollar government fines, while saving time and money.

“I’ve also been contacted by real estate agents who point out that the government says on their Sustainability factsheets that you can ‘Do it yourself -There is no need to engage a building professional to complete the form’ … but fail to point out that if you do attempt to fill the form out and get it wrong, then you could be held legally liable for that mistake or at the very least provide grounds to invalidate the sale of the property,” Mr Messenger said.

“If, for example, a homeowner filled in ‘E5 Insulation’ and got it wrong and there was a house fire because of the insulation, would the former house owner who filled in the form be legally liable for any property damage or loss of life?

“What moral or legal responsibility would Anna Bligh and her Government have, if a home seller was injured while inspecting a roof for insulation in order to tick a box on Bligh’s compulsory Sustainability Checklist?

“The government says that there is no need to engage a building professional but if a professional filled out the form and got it wrong then they would at least be covered by their professional insurance.

“Would private individuals who attempted the form and got it wrong be covered by insurance?

“It’s no wonder that many real estate agents and home owners are now taking advantage of the cheapest, safest and quickest option when filling out the Labor government’s sustainability form and ‘don’t tick because they don’t know’,” he said.

Mr Messenger said the government was forced to change the form because it was caught out preparing the way for a state-based ETS tax (i.e the old form required a greenhouse gas total for each house, the new form doesn’t).

“This form was rushed through parliament last year without any industry or community consultation,” he said.

“It’s a green feel good exercise that we can’t afford - it costs time and money to fill out this unnecessary piece of red tape, but unfortunately it’s the brain child of Anna Bligh’s husband, Greg Withers department… and he’s got to justify his $450,000 job and $200 million department, so I guess we’re stuck with it,” he said.