Landgate investigates controversial property spruiker targeting distressed homeowners - Sydney Morning Herald

Western Australia’s land authority is investigating whether an institute which teaches students how to buy properties from people in financial distress should be able to access WA land title information.

Students learn to use property databases to find the addresses and phone numbers of people on court lists who are likely to be under mortgage stress so that marketing material can be sent to them offering to purchase their home.

Students are taught to use court lists to find people in financial distress.Credit:Rob Homer

Students pay up to $6000 per year for courses that include lessons on how to use Australian court lists and property data software to seek out distressed homeowners and convince them to sell at discounted rates.

The institute has already been cut off from two major Australian property data platforms.

Last year it lost access to two of Australia’s largest property data portals after CoreLogic, which runs RP Data, and Domain, which runs Archistar, cut ties with them.

However, the institute and related property wealth training brand continue to spruik its court list leads method which uses the National Property Group’s National Property Data platform, which uses information that comes via Landgate. In one training course available to elite mentors the institute offer them three months access to the National Property Group platform which they value at $3000.

NPG national sales manager Joe Rossi refused to comment on the institute specifically but said the company had processes in place that could see users found in breach of its own rules removed from the platform completely or educated on how to use it correctly.

Property portals are fed with land titles data from state land agencies under licensing agreements and last month NPG announced it had launched into WA, with South Australia, the ACT and Tasmania expected to in the next few months.

Three years of letters

Perth man Andrew* has appeared in WA’s court lists several times over the course of his three-year battle with his bank to keep his property.

His latest hearing occurred a few weeks ago and not long afterwards his name featured in an institute summation of potential leads from WA court lists – which are provided to students regularly.

It was thanks to a leaked copy of this list that this masthead was able to contact Andrew.

They’re preying on poor people when they’re down
Andrew, Perth homeowner

He said he received his first letter from a stranger offering to purchase his property when his mortgage woes began about three years ago.

When he received the first letter he rang the sender up and gave them a piece of his mind.

“I rang them up and abused the f--k out of them I said ‘don’t start sending me shit like that’,” he said.

“They were like, ‘oh we’re just businesspeople.’

“Their angle is ‘oh we can see that you know you’re in financial stress at the moment we can ease your stress.’

“They’re preying on poor people when they’re down.”

The method

The institute’s teachings have attracted significant controversy over the past three years with the former chief executive of the Consumer Action Law Centre Carolyn Bond saying the courses encouraged preying on vulnerable or ignorant homeowners.

This masthead has obtained training videos produced by the institute.

In one training video looking at how to get leads from the WA Family Court the trainer says that when a couple separates nowadays it’s more likely they will dump the property rather than try to keep it.

“In the past, it used to be when finance was easiest to come by and people could get loans and property values were going up, one party would often keep the house and pay out the other party their share of the equity – they can’t afford to do that any more across the board,” she said.

“It’s two motivated vendors agreeing to go their own ways sell up and split everything. So how do we find those cases...”

Under Landgate’s licensing rules the licensee must not use its data for direct marketing or release it to any third party “where that party proposes to use it for the purposes of direct marketing, or the licensee suspects that this may occur.”

When asked whether the institute’s teachings and use of NPG breached Landgate’s rules a spokeswoman said she could not comment on a commercial agreement.

“Landgate is following up on this matter that has been brought to its attention,” she said.

But speaking generally the spokeswoman said data resellers must meet strict criteria before being granted access to Landgate’s records.

“On entering into an agreement with Landgate, licensees are prohibited from providing tenure data to third parties, including their sub-licensees, for direct marketing purposes or in breach of privacy legislation. The licence specifically addresses privacy and data breaches,” she said.

“When Landgate becomes aware of an alleged misuse of data it notifies the licensee.”

In April 2022 the Australian Securities and Investments Commission slapped a four-year ban on the owner of the institute from engaging in financial services or credit activities. She is appealing ASIC’s ban.

The institute did not respond to requests for comment.

*Name has been changed to protect their anonymity.