Western Australian Consolidated Acts

REAL ESTATE AND BUSINESS AGENTS ACT 1978 - SECT 65

65 .         Agents to ensure payment and apportionment of rates etc.

        (1)         Subject to subsections (2) and (3), where a real estate transaction has been negotiated by an agent it is the agent’s duty to the purchaser to ascertain that all rates, taxes, and outgoings then payable, which are by statute a charge on the real estate, and which, as between the vendor and the purchaser, are payable by the vendor are paid by him, and that all such rates, taxes, and outgoings then accruing are duly apportioned between the vendor and purchaser.

        (2)         Subject to subsection (3), where a real estate transaction has been negotiated in part by one agent and in part by another, they are jointly and severally liable for the proper performance of the duty mentioned in subsection (1).

        (3)         An agent may, at his own expense, engage another person to perform, on behalf of the agent the duty mentioned in subsection (1), or if the agent’s principal instructs him to engage another person to perform that duty or assist in its performance the agent may do so at the expense of his principal, but in either case the agent and the other person are jointly and severally liable for the proper performance of that duty and, where the case requires, are jointly and severally so liable with the other agent.