Property body seeks changes on complaints

The Real Estate Institute is considering changing the way it handles complaints against members after its president was found guilty of a code of ethics breach.

Last year, a firm owned by Howard Morley was found guilty of the breach, paying a fine and costs.

Morley is responsible for setting standards and upholding ethics for an industry with about 16,000 agents handling billions of dollars of sales each year.

Through Auckland Property Management, Morley pleaded guilty to one charge which involved breaching an institute rule stipulating that members should follow good agency practice and conduct themselves in a manner which reflected well on the institute and the profession.

Institute vice-president Murray Cleland has just released the findings of a special sub-committee that investigated how the case was handled.

As a result, a new set of rules is being considered. 

This will include how the institute handles complaints against senior office-holders.

Cleland, institute compliance and operations manager Christine Le Cren and institute immediate past-president Graeme Woodley made up the sub-committee.

Le Cren said 133 complaints were made against agents last year, but most of the cases were dismissed.

She has been asked to examine a report by lawyer Rod Thomas, who last year gave a draft determination which criticised how the rule-breaking case was handled.

Cleland said Thomas had called for changes.

"Thomas found that although the institute followed the process as prescribed by its rules, and had not followed any special procedure even though the complaint involved the national vice-president at the time, it might consider adopting different procedures with approval from the respective parties where there is a perception that a conflict of interest may arise," he said.

"The report found there was no evidence that Morley's standing as vice-president of the institute affected the way in which the complaint was handled."

Thomas concluded that the fine imposed on Auckland Property Management was appropriate.

"Each party has been given an assurance that the recommendations in the report will be addressed as part of the institute's review."

The complainant, Leonie Freeman of property manager Interactive Property Management in Auckland, said she was only partially happy with the outcome.

"If there are changes to the complaints process to make it more transparent and more open, then everybody benefits," she said.

"I would like to think that I have changed something for the better, but I don't know yet because we're yet to see the changes."

The matter had taken four years to be resolved, which was too long.

Her complaint dated back to 2001 when the institute handed a defunct business, Platt Property Management, to Morley's firm to manage.

But when Freeman later bought the Platt business, many of the files remained with Morley's firm, so she complained that the caretaker had turned poacher.