{"id":5246,"date":"2026-11-02T18:54:34","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T08:54:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theonsitemanager.com.au\/news\/special-edition-storry-qcat-permanent-ban\/"},"modified":"2026-11-02T18:54:34","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T08:54:34","slug":"special-edition-storry-qcat-permanent-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theonsitemanager.com.au\/news\/special-edition-storry-qcat-permanent-ban\/","title":{"rendered":"Special Edition: Permanent Ban for Brisbane Agent. The Trust Accounting Lessons Every Onsite Manager Should Take From QCAT&#8217;s Storry Decision"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Most Queensland onsite managers run a letting business under a real estate or resident letting agent licence, with a trust account audited every year. A QCAT decision delivered on 22 October 2026 is a sharp reminder of what happens when that machinery breaks down. In Chief Executive, Department of Justice v Storry &amp; Anor [2026] QCAT 513, Member Oliver ordered that Brisbane agent Venetia Louise Storry be permanently disqualified from holding any licence or registration certificate under the Property Occupations Act 2014 (Qld), and permanently prohibited from being an executive officer of a licensed corporation.<\/p>\n<h2>Background, as the tribunal described it<\/h2>\n<p>Ms Storry took over her late father&#8217;s property management business, Anthony Storry Real Estate, as his health declined in 2017 and 2018, and moved it into her company, Storry Real Estate Pty Ltd. The Office of Fair Trading began investigating in August 2018 after an audit report identified a trust account shortfall. The trust accounts were frozen, a receiver was appointed, and the Chief Executive started disciplinary proceedings in August 2019. The matter took seven years to finalise, after appeals in QCAT&#8217;s appeal tribunal and the Court of Appeal.<\/p>\n<h2>The findings<\/h2>\n<p>The tribunal found all four grounds substantiated, including breaches of the Agents Financial Administration Act 2014 (AFAA) and its regulation:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Trust account opened by an unlicensed entity. The company&#8217;s trust account was opened before the company held a corporate licence (AFAA s 9), and rent was taken into it.<\/li>\n<li>Flat drawings. Ms Storry drew $6,000 a month regardless of commission actually earned. The tribunal called this &#8220;clearly a breach of trust&#8221; and said it was no answer that this was how things had been done.<\/li>\n<li>Overcharging. GST was added on top of a commission the appointment said was GST-inclusive (POA s 90(3)).<\/li>\n<li>Late banking and accounting. Rent was not banked by the end of the next business day (s 16) and receipts were not shown on owner statements (ss 22(5), 23(1)).<\/li>\n<li>Bonds. Three bond amounts were not paid to the bond authority within 42 days.<\/li>\n<li>Records. No auditable books, no receipts to tenants on request, and no monthly reconciliations (AFAR regs 3, 10 and 17).<\/li>\n<li>Obstructing the receiver (s 58). The tribunal said challenging the receivership in the courts did not suspend the duty not to obstruct it, and found that obstruction was intentional.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The tribunal said $54,694.34 was paid from the Claim Fund to affected parties, later largely reimbursed with $48,499.41 from the business&#8217;s trust account. It did not find intentional dishonesty in the account management, but found Ms Storry lacked insight and was likely to reoffend, and said a fixed-term ban would give no confidence.<\/p>\n<h2>Compliance lessons for onsite managers<\/h2>\n<ol>\n<li>Reconcile monthly, within 5 business days. Regulation 17 is not optional, and a missed reconciliation is often how a small problem becomes a receivership.<\/li>\n<li>Draw only what you have earned. Commission comes out against each owner&#8217;s ledger as the appointment allows, never as a flat amount.<\/li>\n<li>Check your appointments to act. Fees, GST treatment and letting commission must match the signed appointment.<\/li>\n<li>Get licensing right before restructuring. If you move the letting business into a new company, the company needs its own licence before it opens a trust account or collects rent.<\/li>\n<li>Absent for more than 30 days? The tribunal noted Ms Storry was unaware of the obligation to hand control to another licensee during long absences.<\/li>\n<li>Lodge bonds on time and issue receipts on request.<\/li>\n<li>Cooperate with the regulator. The tribunal said a different outcome may have been possible had the concerns been addressed early.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>For buyers of management rights, the decision is a good prompt to ask for the last trust account audit and monthly reconciliations during due diligence.<\/p>\n<h2>Sources<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Chief Executive, Department of Justice v Storry &amp; Anor [2026] QCAT 513 (delivered 22 October 2026): <a href=\"https:\/\/www.queenslandjudgments.com.au\/caselaw\/qcat\/2026\/513\">https:\/\/www.queenslandjudgments.com.au\/caselaw\/qcat\/2026\/513<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Storry v Chief Executive, Department of Justice and Attorney-General [2022] QCATA 43: <a href=\"http:\/\/kirra.austlii.edu.au\/au\/cases\/qld\/QCATA\/2022\/43.html\">http:\/\/kirra.austlii.edu.au\/au\/cases\/qld\/QCATA\/2022\/43.html<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Storry v Department of Justice and Attorney-General &#8211; Office of Fair Trading [2020] QCAT 94: <a href=\"https:\/\/classic.austlii.edu.au\/au\/cases\/qld\/QCAT\/2020\/94.html\">https:\/\/classic.austlii.edu.au\/au\/cases\/qld\/QCAT\/2020\/94.html<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>General information only, not legal advice.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Most Queensland onsite managers run a letting business under a real estate or resident letting agent licence, with a trust account audited every year. A&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1294,"featured_media":5245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_mbp_gutenberg_autopost":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,7,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-body-corporate","category-general-interest","category-legal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonsitemanager.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonsitemanager.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonsitemanager.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonsitemanager.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1294"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonsitemanager.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonsitemanager.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonsitemanager.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonsitemanager.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonsitemanager.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonsitemanager.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}