A well meaning but insensitive Auckland real estate agent has the infamy of becoming the first licensee to be censured under the new REAA regime. The North Shore real estate agent sent cold-calling condolences to a grieving widow – then offered to sell her house.
Whether you find this hearse chasing behaviour disagreeable or not, the real story is the fact that the governing body under the REAA 2008 has finally opened its mouth, bared its teeth and growled.
A complaint was made by the daughter of the grieving widow. Interestingly, the daughter was a property manager working for an opposition firm. Did politics have anything to do with the official complaint or the fact that it was leaked to the media? I get the feeling that it may have.
In the ruling, the complaints assessment board found that …
“The license’s actions had fallen short of the standard expected by the public.
She had broken the law in sending the condolence card to the complainant’s recently bereaved mother, and that amounted to the unsolicited canvassing of property and real estate agency work. The agent had caused significant distress to a widow and her family at a time of great sadness.”
The licensee was not fined but the committee censured her.
In ruling that the licensee had broken the law, we in the industry now have a glimpse into the way the complaints board may rule. The Act has brought into existence a new standard for all real estate agents and licensees – that of “the standard expected by the public”. I’m not sure what this means for the future but it is certainly different than the way the industry has been run till now. This public expectation standard is still an embryonic thing with few distinct boundaries or features. All eyes will be on this creature as it develops into a body of precidents and rulings.
