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Often clients will want their lawyer to act as the executor of their will. While most lawyers honestly and faithfully act in that capacity, unfortunately there have been a number of instances where the conduct of the lawyer has left much to be desired. Generally when a lawyer is appointed to act as executor, it is when there is no close family member able to carry out that role. That can lead to a lack of oversight and accountability, particularly where there is no co-executor. It can also mean that lawyers’ rates are being charged for a lot of basic work, such as sorting through possessions and mail. These situations can give rise to overcharging. In a recent matter, we acted for a client making a claim to the Law Society fidelity fund to recover quite significant overcharges made by a lawyer in the administration of an estate. Of over $42,000 charged by the lawyer and deducted from money paid into the lawyer’s trust account in the estate, over $30,000 was accepted to be in excess of an appropriate fee, and this was compensated by the fund. In other words, over $42,000 was charged for work accepted to be worth around $12,000. Our wills and estate lawyers recommend that there are two executors if it is intended to appoint a lawyer as one. For further information, look at our page https://qbmlawyers.demo2.website/estate-lawyers-gold-coast/who-should-be-the-executor-of-my-will/

Plenty of people are in the current market, and in doing that they sign an appointment to act. But before doing so it is important to check the terms of the appointment. Under Queensland’s Property Occupations Act, agents have to have a written appointment before performing services for the seller, in the absence of which they may lose their entitlement to commission. The form of appointment is Property Occupations Act Form 6 which is a form available from the Queensland Government website. The form provides for the appointment to be one of a listing for a particular service, an open listing (other agents can be appointed), a sole agency (the appointed agent is the only agent but the seller can sell), or an exclusive agency (the agent is the only agent and is paid commission even if the seller sells). It is important to know what sort of appointment is proposed, and what the consequences are. For agents, the holy grail is an exclusive agency with or without an auction, and generally after the exclusive agency ends the appointment will provide for an open listing. Many any agents add terms to the form which are also signed by their clients. Most often those terms are in a form produced by the Real Estate Institute of Queensland, and called “Essential Terms and Conditions”. Those terms and conditions contain a number of provisions for the benefit of the agent and which should be examined by sellers and possibly deleted. As examples, the terms: (a) require the owner to pay commission if the contract is terminated due to the default of the seller (eg if the mortgagee will not release); (b) require the owner to pay commission if the contract fails and all or part of the deposit is liable to be forfeited – even if that is less than the commission; (c) require the owner to pay commission if the contract is terminated by mutual agreement – even if the buyer clearly cannot settle; (d) contain warranties as to the condition of the premises and indemnities in favour of the agent from claims in certain circumstances, even if the owner is not at fault. These sorts of forms are often signed without the owner reading them carefully or understanding the risks, and often without the owner appreciating that certain provisions can – and should – be removed. For advice concerning appointments, please contact Peter Muller at peterm@qbmlaw.com.au.

Land tax valuations are generally issued from March each year, with assessment notices being issued in around October. Land Tax is assessed on the land owned as at midnight 30 June in a year, meaning that if the land is sold by 29 June or bought on 1 July it is not included in the assessment for that year. With property values increasing, land tax can be quite a substantial amount particularly if no exemption applies. As an example, land with an assessment of $1,000,000 without exemption will have land tax in the 2021 year of $12,500 if owned by a company or trust (no exemption), $4,500 for an individual (if it is their owny land, but no other exemption), or $25,500 for a foreign company or trust. The objection period for valuations is 60 days from when it is issued. It is important to make any objection within that time. For information and advice about land tax objections please contact Peter Muller at peterm@qbmlaw.com.au