A vendor laid a complaint against a real estate agent after she rushed to her own nearby toilet, leaving the yet-to-settle buyers alone in his apartment. Photo / NZME
A vendor laid a complaint against a real estate agent after she rushed to her own nearby toilet, leaving the yet-to-settle buyers alone in his apartment. Photo / NZME
A real estate agent who suffered a “gastro emergency” left the buyers of an apartment unsupervised as she rushed to the toilet.
The split-second decision meant the couple were left alone in an apartment they were buying and resulted in allegations the woman breached the vendor’s trust.
The vendor, who was not due to settle the sale and hand over the keys for another two weeks, claimed he arrived at his property to find the buyers on the balcony sipping wine, with the agent nowhere to be seen.
He later complained the real estate agent was disrespectful and had breached his privacy.
The allegation against the Auckland agent was one of several that wound up before the Real Estate Authority’s complaints assessment committee.
While she was largely cleared of any wrongdoing, the woman, whom NZME is not naming, was censured on one charge.
According to the decision released this week the vendor, who was not named in the decision, contacted the agent in August 2020 to discuss listing his property.
While he wanted it listed, he did not want it marketed for another two months, when he was due to move out.
The vendor accused the agent, who lived in the same Central Auckland apartment building as him, of bombarding him every two to three days for the following two months, seeking updates.
He claimed the alleged contact was “so severe” it left him distressed and feeling as though he had to block the agent’s number, the committee wrote in its decision.
The apartment in Central Auckland was in the same building the realtor lived in. Photo / 123rf
But the committee said the evidence did not back up the allegation. The agent’s communication was considerate, dutiful and respectful, it found.
The vendor also alleged the realtor carelessly left the door to his apartment unlocked.
While she admitted to leaving it unlocked, she said it was for viewing purposes as the lock was difficult to turn. With a swipe card required to enter the apartment building, she considered the risk low.
The committee agreed, saying it was not satisfied the actions were unreasonable.
The vendor also alleged he found the eventual buyers sitting on the balcony of the apartment two weeks before the property was to be officially handed over.
He claimed the pair were drinking wine and had turned on the fridge to chill their tipple.
The presence of the buyers was a “direct and severe violation of privacy”, according to the vendor.
But the realtor said the buyers had asked for access to take measurements for furniture. She agreed to meet with them, but experienced “a sudden attack of nausea and diarrhoea”.
Urgently needing the bathroom, she rushed to her own apartment in the same building, leaving the buyers alone for about 10 minutes.
She did not witness any drinking and said she had turned on the fridge to get rid of any odours.
The woman admitted it was unprofessional to leave the buyers unsupervised, but also said it would be unprofessional to tend to her “gastro emergency” in the vendor’s toilet.
The committee said it was a “technical breach” that did not warrant an adverse finding.
However, it did find one aspect of the agent’s conduct out of order.
She provided the vendor with a compulsory current market appraisal when the original three-month listing agreement was signed in August 2020.
But she did not provide another appraisal when the vendor renewed the agreement for another three months in December 2020.
Agents are required to provide a new, current appraisal if the vendor is renewing their sole agency agreement, because the market may have changed during the listing period.
She told the committee this was because of the delayed marketing of the property, the difficulty in contacting the vendor and a surgical procedure she underwent in early December.
The committee considered this a breach, and while the realtor was censured, she was not fined due to the low level of misconduct.
Ethan Griffiths covers crime and justice stories nationwide for Open Justice. He joined NZME in 2020, previously working as a regional reporter in Whanganui and South Taranaki.
