Why government has to pay for the compensation?

ACT government to pay Canberra property scam victim more than $540,000

 

Agree. I fail to see how the government has any responsibility in this incident.

 

• Government is liable as it guarantees the title, there are provisions in the Act which render the Crown liable where the perpetrators of the fraud cannot be identified (hence limitation on who pays the compensation);
• Purchaser isn't a party as they haven't committed a fraud; &
• Should be some liability back on the agency and solicitor for not confirming the details of the vendor

 

A fundamental aspect of Torrens Title used in Australia is 'title by registration'. That means that upon registration of a transfer of the property you obtain indefeasible title (subject to limited exceptions, of which one is fraud). The reason the fraud exception did not apply in this case is because it was an innocent third party for valuable consideration. The notion of indefeasible title means that the property could not just be transferred back to the original owner so the Government pays compensation.

If the Government did not guarantee title in this way it would undermine the entire Torrens Title system. In theory a portion of all lodgement fees are meant to be set aside to pay claims such as this.

 

I agree that it is good to see some form of protection in this case for the former owner (even if she is in South Africa, still, she could have been a part of the scam for all the authorities know).

But as stated above, "liability back on the agency and solicitor for not confirming the details of the vendor" !

Really, someone emails me and "changes their contact details" and I email/call their old details to CONFIRM ! Let alone A WEEK LATER they decide to sell, how dumb is the agent !!!

 

I do believe that there is also a case against the agency - I believe their duty of care was massively lacking. As per the last line of the article, this happened twice here in WA and fantastic (although cumbersome) steps where put in place to help prevent it happening. The thefts made national headlines and you'd think other State's agents even if they didn't have compulory changes would bring in their own more robust checks at an agency level.
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/wa-...ams-rears-ugly-head-again-20120219-1tgtr.html