By CHRIS DANIELS consumer reporter
The arrival of a lawyer-real estate hybrid has put the cat among the pigeons in the Auckland property market.
Lawyers who have set up the national real estate firm Real are threatening legal action against colleagues they say are spreading lies and deceitful statements about the venture.
Real, which stands for Real Estate Agents and Lawyers, has been advertising on television and billboards, incurring the wrath of other Auckland lawyers who are shunning the scheme.
Some disgruntled lawyers have sent letters to real estate agents saying they are not involved in the venture.
The letters also say Real lawyers are precluded from sending clients on to other real estate agents.
Lawyers are not legally allowed to sell real estate, but 400 solicitors and firms across New Zealand have invested in Real.
They will not get any profits from it, but hope to attract extra conveyancing business.
Real project coordinator Warwick Brown said the letters sent by competing lawyers to agents breached the Fair Trading Act, which outlawed "misleading and deceptive conduct."
The letters tell agents that Real lawyers are, "by virtue of their relationship with Real, precluded from continuing to deal with you in the future ..." The system "obliges them not to advise clients to list with any other real estate agents."
Mr Brown said this was untrue, and Real lawyers were not required to send clients on to the real estate side of the business.
Lawyers who sent the letters have been told to issue a retraction or face civil court action.
Real Estate Institute president Max Oliver said many agents were concerned at the way Real operated and there had been a lot of flak.
Institute lawyers were due to meet Real next week to discuss their concerns.
Full-page advertisements have listed the 184 Auckland law firms and sole practitioners who have signed with Real.
The scheme offers commission rates of 2.95 per cent, plus a fee and free conveyancing through a Real lawyer.
Mr Brown said the lawyers were obliged to offer a free interview to anyone and explain the Real arrangement in a professional way.
Estate agents not involved with Real said they would boycott any of the Real lawyers by not referring potential clients to them.
One agent said he expected legal action against the new operation because when a lawyer accepted a listing for a property, he or she was in fact starting the sale-for-commission process, which lawyers were barred from.
He claimed Real had succeeded in attracting only failed estate agents.
But Ian Grindle, manager of the real estate side of Real, said a wide cross-section of agents were being employed.
Comments about "failed agents" were propaganda.
"I don't really give a toss what they say," said Mr Grindle.
"It's amazing - they're walking around with blindfolds on."
Real estate venture pits lawyer against lawyer
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