SURREY — Two Surrey real estate agents have been found guilty of professional misconduct recently by the Real Estate Council of British Columbia.
Satinderpal Singh Dhaliwal’s licence has been suspended for 21 days, from April 4 to April 24, and he was ordered to pay a discipline penalty of $6,000 and $3,000 in “enforcement expenses.”
Dhaliwal has been licenced since 2008, and was “at all relevant times” licensed as a representative with Century 21 Coastal Realty Ltd.
A Consent Order dated March 1st indicates Dhaliwal’s suspension is related to his involvement in the sale of strata units in a new development in Surrey. Details of the townhouse development, including location and number of units, has been blacked out in the Real Estate Council of British Columbia document, as have other details.
According to the discipline summary, Dhaliwal provided real estate services outside of his brokerage and received remuneration for those services, didn’t deal with a late deposit, and provided real estate services to, or on behalf of, a real estate development company in his capacity as development manager when he was in charge of land acquistion and assembly, which amounted to a “trade in real estate” under the Real Estate Services Act.
He also, according to the summary, “did not disclose the nature of the representation he was providing to the developer, in that he held himself out as an employee when he was acting as a designated agent for the developer” and “he did not keep his managing broker informed of the real estate services he was providing, and other activities he was performing for the developer.”
“In one transaction,” the summary continues, “Mr. Dhaliwal wrongly assumed that the developer received the buyer’s deposit in accordance with the contract, and sent confirmation of receipt to the buyer’s agent. He did not take further steps to confirm whether the deposit had been received until almost a year later, when it was discovered that the buyer’s bank draft was missing. Mr. Dhaliwal did not notify his managing broker that a deposit was not recieved in accordance with the contract.”
Ammabelle Basco, a representative of Team 3000 Realty in Surrey, acted as the buyer’s agent in a transaction but “failed to act with reasonable care and skill, and did not use reasonable efforts to discover relevant facts respecting the property her client was considering acquiring,” a discipline summary posted Feb. 27 stated, “when she did not ensure that a term requiring the seller to give legal notice to an existing tenant to vacate the property was included in the Contract of Purchase and Sale; ask for a copy of the existing tenancy agreement from the listing agent, and instead, accepted information about the tenant occupancy verbally; and ensure that details of the existing tenancy were included in the Contract of Purchase and Sale to ensure her client would have vacant possesssion.”
Basco was ordered to pay a $3,000 fine, complete the Real Estate Trading Service Remedial Education Course through UBC’s Sauder School of Business, and also pay $1,500 in “enforcement expenses.”
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