$30K fine for B.C. real estate agent who failed to warn clients about special levy before condo purchase
A second B.C. actual property agent has been ordered to pay greater than $30,000 for failing to inform his shoppers about an impending particular levy earlier than they bought a condominium in White Rock.
Jitendra Angelo Dehideniya has six months to pay the $30,000 self-discipline penalty plus $1,500 in enforcement bills underneath a consent order he agreed to with the B.C. Financial Services Authority.
He should additionally full the Real Estate Trading Services Remedial Education Course at UBC’s Sauder School of Business inside three months, in line with the order.
The self-discipline stems from an incident that occurred in 2018. At the time, Dehideniya had solely just lately joined Sutton Group – West Coast Realty and was a junior member of the group that marketed itself as “The BC Elite Real Estate Group,” in line with the consent order.
A retired couple from Langley approached the workforce’s lead – recognized within the order solely as SY – seeking to transfer to White Rock. Dehideniya and SY carried out a property search, and the consumers finally entered into an settlement to buy a condominium in a four-storey, 39-unit strata constructing that was inbuilt 1986.
The settlement was topic to the assessment of strata paperwork – together with assembly minutes, bylaws, monetary statements and extra – by the consumers.
According to the consent order, these paperwork had been offered to Dehideniya the day earlier than topic circumstances had been attributable to be eliminated and a deposit paid.
The order signifies Dehideniya did not share the paperwork with the consumers till June 8, 2018, properly after that they had accomplished their buy and moved into the condominium.
If that they had acquired the paperwork on time, they probably would have identified that the strata council was planning a particular levy to pay for enhancements to the constructing envelope, with a complete price anticipated to be round $2 million.
Instead, in line with the order, the couple came upon about their probably massive legal responsibility from one among their new neighbours – a strata council member – as they had been shifting in.
The remaining price of the particular levy for the consumers’ unit ended up being greater than $61,000, a complete they could not afford. They ended up promoting the property slightly greater than a yr after shopping for it.
“Mr. Dehideniya told BCFSA that he did not provide the strata documents to the buyers as they did not have email and he could not print hundreds of pages and mail them,” the consent order reads.
2ND MISCONDUCT PENALTY IN CASE
In the consent order, Dehideniya agrees that his dealing with of the scenario amounted to skilled misconduct.
He acknowledges that he “failed to make inquiries into the strata’s building envelope remediation project,” “failed to obtain, review, and provide to the buyers a complete set of strata documents” previous to their buy, and “failed to advise the buyers to seek independent professional advice regarding the potential risks associated with the building envelope remediation project.”
Dehideniya is the second member of the Sutton Group–West Coast Realty workforce to be fined for skilled misconduct in relation to his dealing with of the White Rock condominium buy.
In April, the BCFSA revealed an analogous consent settlement relating to Suleman Yasin and his Personal Real Estate Corporation.
In that case, Yasin agreed to pay a $35,000 penalty and $1,500 in enforcement bills, in addition to to take the remedial course at UBC.
Neither Dehideniya nor Yasin has any earlier self-discipline historical past with the BCFSA.
