Some real estate dickhead just rang my mobile (which is not advertised anywhere) saying they were “just in the area” and wanted to do an appraisal on a house we own in <suburb name>.
It’s an agency we don’t use for any purpose, have never used for any purpose, and have never approached for any reason.
Is there some sort of legal issue with some smarmy sales knob looking up property owner details and cold calling them?
Makes me feel all gross that their grubby mitts are pawing through my deets somewhere in the hope of being able to stick a tongue up my bum and get a taste of some back door cash.
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Australia has a Do Not Call Register. A telemarketing call (which includes where the purpose is “to offer to supply goods or services” or “to advertise or promote goods or services”) is generally illegal if it is made to a number on the Do Not Call Register. There is an exemption if they submitted the number called to the Register to check if it was listed up to 30 days before the call, and it didn’t come back - so generally complaints are only possible if the number has been on the register for longer than 30 days. Consumers can get listed on the DNCR, and submit complaints if they receive a telemarketing call more than 30 days after listing at https://www.donotcall.gov.au/. The legislation can be read here: https://www.legislation.gov.au/C2006A00088/latest/text
In addition, Australia has commonwealth legislation about processing of personal information (the Privacy Act). However, it currently doesn’t apply to ‘small businesses’ - businesses which made less than $3,000,000 of revenue in the previous financial year, unless they are in the credit reporting, health, or data broking business, or supply to the commonwealth. For organisations the Privacy Act applies to, they are only allowed to use personal information for direct marketing in a few circumstances - they obtained it from a person who would reasonably expect them to use it in those circumstances, and they provide an easy way to opt out, and they haven’t opted out. They can also obtain it from someone else with the person’s consent (or if it is impractical to obtain the consent). If asked, they have to disclose what information they hold, and the source of the data. The text of the Privacy Act can be found here: https://www.legislation.gov.au/C2004A03712/latest/text. The government has announced plans to tighten it up, likely including covering small businesses and increasing penalties.
Disclaimer: IANAL, not intended as legal advice, your individual circumstances might vary, consult a lawyer.
they really need to fuck off with that “doesn’t apply to small business”. You see it with worker protection, privacy, basic security. Go fuck yourselves. You’re jump starting bad practises.
In America there are “do not call” lists and I think it’s illegal to cold-call numbers on those. Otherwise, you’re free game if there’s not a state or municipal law protecting you (and there rarely is). Maybe Australia has something similar.
Either way, you’ll get far fewer inquiries from landsharks if you stop hoarding properties and parasitizing the wages of people who work.
I don’t know but if I had to guess I’d say no such law exists.
They can’t “harass” you, but a once off call isn’t that.
Even if you could prove they had gotten your personal details through some nefarious means, no one would care. If you complained to their professional body I can almost guarantee they wouldn’t understand what the problem is.
They can’t “harass” you, but a once off call isn’t that.
Found the non-Millennial! I would say all phone calls are harassment. 😋
fuck off this person is whining about cold calls while people are literally dying because people like them are hoarding surplus housing.
this person is whining about cold calls while people are literally dying
Jesus mate, there’s a reason people don’t take you seriously.
So you speak for all people now? The supreme arrogance you have displayed here is incredible.
You think you deserve to determine where people can sleep. You think you deserve to own houses you don’t need.
Found the person with no sense of humour. 😋
I do not find it funny to joke about this sort of shit. People are dying because of people like the OP here and they are whining about cold calls while they deprive people of housing by being a parasitic piece of shit.
I hope they get many more cold calls in the future. Maybe joke about that instead asshole.
If you had ever been homeless or close to it you might understand but you and they are displaying some incredible levels of privilege while whining about a minor inconvenience or annoyance while they literally are responsible for people dying by hoarding housing for a profit motive and you and they can kindly go fuck yourselves.
How do you read any of this and think I’m on the side of the real estate agents or the hoarding of housing?
Because you are making light of the OP being annoyed at a cold call while millions of people die every year because of a lack of shelter.
Here in VIC, its also completely s*** there aren’t any junk mail laws.
Myself (and I heard this from others) plan to shred up any crap they put in my mailbox though from now on, and scatter it in their office. If everyone does that, it makes it unprofitable for them to do dodgy junk mail drops at least. It’s also likely totally legal, because you’re returning their litter… At the moment, they ignore NO JUNK mail signs because there are no repurcussions, but, even shoving it under their door at their office might be enough to make them stop. Everyone really needs to start this…
I generally add their number to every callback number I can find on the internet, so they have to deal with dodgy phone calls. As they are distributing their mobile number wanting people to call them, I make sure as many people call them as they request
There should be a law against owning properties you don’t live in.
That said fucking with real estate agents I can get behind so do whatever on that front. Maybe consider not being a landlord though.
Yeah, it’s a pity there isn’t a law against it I guess. If I sold that one extra house I’m hoarding the housing crisis would be pretty much over tbh.
yeah yeah, no snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.
Of course not, snowflakes are inanimate objects and the cause of an avalanche are external forces not the combined desire of the snowflakes to go tumble down a mountain for personal snowflake advantage.
I get what you are saying about this not being a matter of personal individual responsibility, but coming on here and complaining about a telemarketer that you could just ignore is pretty fucking insensitive to all the unhoused folks that you could be helping by just not being a rent-seeking parasite.
not sure we go that far (in a sane system rentals have their place) but absolutely start taxing the ever loving shit out of anything over the PPR. The more houses the more tax. More. More. MOOOOOOOOOORE. They speak the language of money, make it snarl at them.
And ban corporations / companies / business entities from owning standalone housing and land.
Literally the only way to achieve this is through some sort of revolution. Reformism is impossible under the dictatorship of capital.
Mmm, you talking like the sexual revolution or like the Russian revolution? 'Cos you can miss me with that latter shit, change wrought of violence leaves people confused, unthinking and ends up with a new pack of cunts in charge doing the same shit in a different hat.
People who call for violent revolution in the western world tend to pull their playbook out of goddamn religious idealism. Specifically that whole weird apocalypse obsession. One big final war and then all things will be well!!!
Nope.
There is no final goal to be kicked here. There is no final deciding victory. There’s just the unromantic never ending work of improvement. Deal with it.
Ironic that Mao is discussed and the biggest culprits in the housing market are (allegedly) Chinese nationals.
Reportedly, in certain Chinese cultures, men (and young men) do not have access to women and you women unless they are a land owner. It doesn’t matter if the land they own is a single-room apartment that has room for half a single bed and never has any tenants, they own land so they get a root. This also explains all those huge ghost cities in China which are all unoccupied high-rises.
You and everyone else talking shit about China are not doing so in a principled manner and are displaying incredible amounts of racism and chauvinism.
I can think of a few exceptions. But I think owning multiple properties in the same location for more than a specified amount of time should be illegal or heavily taxed.
For example, you buy a home and are still trying to sell an old one. You might own two houses for some time. You might inherit a house and need to sell it.
You might have family in multiple parts of the country or work in multiple parts of the country/world and need a place to live.
A friend’s mom had severe asthma and was told to leave her home state during the winter and live in Florida.
But I have a friend who owns like 3 hours in the same neighborhood just as rental properties. That should be illegal/heavily taxed.
But I have a friend who owns like 3 hours in the same neighborhood just as rental properties. That should be illegal/heavily taxed.
Laughing at the person calling Mao a dictator, guess their comment was blocked in here. Popular support and being elected mean nothing because he wasn’t white. “Authoritarian” is even better. And then they yap some nonsense about living in someone’s head when they were the ones crying because you posted a Mao emote.
Why’s there a murderous authoritarian dictator here? That’s some real tankie chud shit.
tankie chud shit
The user you’re responding to is a long time anarchist who’s been active in various indigenous anarchist orgs for at least the last several years and has hosted multiple fund raiders for them through the site. He’s not exactly a tankie unless you consider him being rude and praising the number one landlord basher a single time to instantly outweigh all the anarchist praxis he’s been doing for years.
Oh please don’t give me that shit.
No anarchist is going to praise Mao or China. They’re an ML kiddie.
We know exactly what you lot do to us given a chance, you’ll turn your guns on us just like you did in Spain.
So I was informed you were talking shit about me and could not see it so I had to make an account to ask you to kindly touch some fucking grass. I do tons of organizing with MLs and Maoists and none of them are going to “turn the guns on me”. People like you however I am very worried about calling the cops on us.
Also Mao was an anarchist in college lol.
Like I said, no investigation no right to speak.
I blocked your shitty instances as somehow Hexbear and .ml got back into my feed. Good to see you got off the propaganda platforms. Maybe you can learn something while you’re here.
Also I find the idea of your little chat groups hilarious, I hope you’re still talking and thinking about me.
the maoist uprising against the landlords was the largest and most comprehensive proletarian revolution in history, and led to almost totally-equal redistribution of land among the peasantry
Sure, and it also led to mass deaths, brutal authoritarianism, and destruction of thousands of years of history.
And it ended with state capitalism and a ruling billionaire class.
Fuck authority.
Nice anti-communist think tank talking points you got there. Do you have any reliable evidence that shows it? All the evidence I can find kinda of points to the opposite?
Ruling billionaire class? If you’re a capitalist in China and you even slightly fuck over the environment or your workers you get executed.
Mass deaths…? You likely mean the deaths through starvation in one of the worst events of drought in history, which then never happened again? Or the deaths of the fascist reactionaries that fought against the revolution?
State capitalism? Just go read a bit on socialist oriented markets and the theory behind the Chinese socialist model. You might not agree with it, but if that’s state capitalism, you can give me some and I’ll smile.
And brutal authoritarianism? You literally never read a single source on Chinese democracy. I bet you live in a place that is infinitely less democratic.
Nice state propaganda you have there.
Tell me, why does China even have billionaires?
You can parrot off all you want, we can see with our own eyes what China is.
There should be a law against owning properties you don’t live in.
I’m trying to picture what this looks like. Who do we rent from if we can’t afford to buy a house in this alternate vision of the future? There is no way that 20-year-old me working at servos had the capital to buy a house. I had zero savings and a low income.
I see you invoking the Maoist uprising in another comment, but I’ll be honest - the years following that uprising were hard for a huge swathe of the population (not to mention fatal for Millions more). I would not want to live through a Chairman Mao. Modern China happened despite Mao. Not because of him.
You literally cannot conceive of a reality wherein a home does not have to be rented from a parasitic landlord?
You cannot conceive a future wherein you don’t have to afford a home?
Also Mao is a beloved figure for many because he lifted millions out of poverty and ended the brutal feudal system that preceeded him. He also famously said “no investigation no right to speak” and you clearly need to do some investigating.
I can’t conceive the land not belonging to someone, no. That’s not how our society works. And before you break that, I’d want to take a good look at what you’d replace it with. Because the objective facts are that this system is the best thing tried so far.
Mao did none of those things. He was a destroyer, not a builder. He dabbled and experimented through the Cultural Revolution, and was directly responsible for millions of deaths as a result. After killing everyone with an education he could get his hands on, he used Soviet know-how to start moving from an agricultral to Industrial nation. Forgetting in the process that those agricultural practices were feedign his population. Whoops!
I have no idea why he has such a following. Is it because he tore the whole system down? Is it because he wrote some essays? China didn’t start developing until years after Mao left office.
I can’t conceive the land not belonging to someone, no.
This is just basically like saying “I do not know anything about history”.
The land used to be called “the commons”. It was owned by nobody. It was everyone’s land.
It was taken over by a system called Enclosure, in which the common land was stolen from the people and “Enclosed” by a small few people who took over.
I have no idea why he has such a following. Is it because he tore the whole system down? Is it because he wrote some essays? China didn’t start developing until years after Mao left office.
The average lifespan in China was 33 when Mao launched the revolution. It rose DURING the revolution, during civil war conditions simulteously alongside a literal fascist exterminationist invasion by the Japanese. The life expectancy during this period rose despite war because the communists were improving the conditions of the people immediately.
The life expectancy upon Mao’s death was 64. It rose further after his death.
Life expectancy does not rise when people’s lives are getting worse. He certainly made some mistakes, but you are making an utterly fatal mistake here by looking at “x number of people died” in isolation instead of looking at it in comparison to what existed before.
And if none of that is enough for you I leave you with this:
It has been estimated that, by the 19th century, 40–50% of all Chinese women may have had bound feet, rising to almost 100% in upper-class Han Chinese women.
The ending of footbinding alone justifies Mao as a positive thing all by itself. Without ever having to discuss literally anything else. It was a horrific practice. There’s plenty more to use as justification, but footbinding by itself is singlehandedly enough to justify it all.
Everyone the Maoist revolution killed fucking deserved it. And I am not talking about the environmental causes of the famine that coincidentally happened afterward. But everyone the Maoist revolutionaries killed fucking deserved it.
Honestly a lot more deserved it over footbinding being absolutely fucking vile but then you’d be at like half the population.
This Quokka cracker is making me so fuckin mad lol. Fight me IRL nerd.
Wow an aussie not respecting indigenous land stewardship practices? I’m shocked.
Man go fuck off back to wherever your european colonizer ancestors came from.
You honestly better hope we never meet. Because if we do it’s
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-04/vienna-s-social-housing-and-low-rent-strategy/102639674
Good quality, cheap housing.
Meanwhile the roof in my kitchen has almost fallen out (huge hole in it) and when I reported it to my landlord they instead arranged for a “routine” house inspection next week.
The practice of “renting” needs to die in a goddamn fire. Single family homes should never be “rented”. Temporary (6-month to 5-year) occupancy of a single family home should be done under a “land contract”.
Basically, the occupant starts making mortgage payments (principle, interest, taxes, insurance) but title stays with the landlord. The landlord receives only the “interest” part of the payment. The “principle” part of the payment is held in escrow, in an interest-bearing account. This is the occupant’s equity in the home.
If the occupant stays through the term of the contract, title transfers to the occupant, the escrowed principle payments transfer to the landlord, and the contract converts to a private mortgage. If the occupant leaves before the term of the contract, the principle payments are returned to them.
Land contracts build tenant wealth and drive people toward home ownership. 20-year-old you, with no capital and working a minimum wage job, should be able to enter into a land contract and start building wealth.
I’m sort-of following the idea here - and I appreciate that there has been actual thought behind it.
I’m missing a couple of points though:
- Why would a landowner enter into this arrangement instead of just selling the property to someone with the finances to buy it outright from them?
- Who underwrites this? Even a Banks with Billions of dollars in their reserve will make me commit a decent percentage of the property’s value in the form of a deposit. If you take that away, the landowner is taking a huge risk by entering into this contract. I guess that feeds back to point #1, but assuming an altruistic landowner who just wants to help people - they’re gambling their most valuable assets against my ability to slowly dribble money at them. If their tenant loses their job or something and can’t afford payments, what happens?
-
The simplest answer is that the landowner could expect a higher ROI from issuing a land contract or private mortgage than from selling outright. If they do decide to sell, it’s going to be to an owner-occupant, or another investor willing to “partner” with a tenant/buyer to secure that owner-occupant credit. The Non-occupant “penalty” should be high enough to kill the traditional landlord’s ROI.
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I don’t think I am taking away the deposit. Where are you getting that?
The landowner is “gambling” just as much with a land contract as they would be with a traditional rental.
The private mortgagee can insist on a 20% down payment from the mortgager, just like a conventional mortgagee.
Land contracts build tenant wealth and drive people toward home ownership. 20-year-old you, with no capital and working a minimum wage job, should be able to enter into a land contract and start building wealth.
20-year-old me had no capital, remember? The shabby apartment I lived in back in the 90’s was worth less than $100k, but 20% of whatever that number was would still have been well beyond my means.
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To drive us toward such a system, we can provide significant property tax advantages to owner-occupants. Investors can only get those advantages by getting the occupant of a property to qualify as an “owner”. A renter would not qualify, but a tenant under a land contract would.
Basically, we phase in an increase in property taxes, and a commensurate (or greater) owner occupant credit. Current owner-occupants will pay the same (or less) than they currently do. Investors who adapt, and convert their “tenants” to “buyers”, will also pay the same (or less) than they currently do. Investors who refuse to convert will pay higher property taxes, while also serving a smaller pool of tenants with better options.
I see you invoking the Maoist uprising in another comment, but I’ll be honest - the years following that uprising were hard for a huge swathe of the population (not to mention fatal for Millions more). I would not want to live through a Chairman Mao.
If you think it was hard to live under Mao, you should see what it was like before him.
I don’t think China was better under Mao than it was at any point before him. And it was worse under Mao than at several previous points.
He literally doubled the country’s life expectancy
You’re just racist.
I see you invoking the Maoist uprising in another comment, but I’ll be honest - the years following that uprising were hard for a huge swathe of the population (not to mention fatal for Millions more). I would not want to live through a Chairman Mao. Modern China happened despite Mao. Not because of him.
What was it like to live in China before 1949 compared to after 1949? Please support your assertions with relevant statistics.
I don’t know what your point is. China was a shitshow. Both before and during Mao’s time. I don’t live in such a place though. And I absolutely would not want to go from where I am now to being under Mao. He’d kill me for being an “intellectual” for a start.
Considering you are confidently politically and historically illiterate I don’t think you need to worry about being executed for being an “intellectual”.
He’d kill me for being an “intellectual” for a start.
Don’t worry mate. There is 0% chance of anyone anywhere mistaking you for an intellectual.
Mao: peasants dont have to pay rent anymore
me, an intellectual: nooo, i cant foresee a world where my wages arent siphoned by a passive landowner!
Sign up on the DoNotCall register.
It will stop the honest ones from calling and when the dishonest ones do call, ask them for their business name and ABN and they disconnect very quickly.
It doesn’t make you immune to Political or Charity cold-calls, but if you mention that you will never vote or donate to someone who does cold calls, you get out on their internal DNC list very quickly.
It also doesn’t stop Scam/Illegal spam calls, but if you ask for their legal business name and ABN enough times, they soon get the picture and will disconnect the call.
