Purplebricks Australia fined £11,200 after regulator receives complaints about its fixed fees

Purplebricks Australia has been fined AU$20,000 (£11,200) by the Queensland Office of Fair Trading (OFT) following complaints that it had misled customers about its fixed-fee offering, and not followed accounting and other business rules. OFT says it received “several complaints” about misleading claims both on Purplebricks’ website and within advertising. In a similar way that some consumers and agents complain about Purplebricks in the UK, it was claimed that Purplebricks was not clear that its fees were charged whether a property is sold or not. “Between November 2016 and June 2017, Purplebricks Australia Pty Ltd, entered into agreements with consumers who were not made aware of the terms of the fees charged,” a statement from the Queensland Office of Fair Trading says. “Consumers were also misled about additional services offered by Purplebricks, despite the agency advertising ‘low, fixed fees’ for their services when selling property. “Purplebricks [also] failed to fulfil some of its regulatory obligations about use of appropriate accounts software, use of a non-Queensland bank account and notification of substitute licensees and other places of business.” In a statement to Australian website Financial Review, Purplebricks’ CEO in Australia, Ryan Dinsdale (pictured, above), said his company had worked with the…