Tribunal cancels Auckland realtor’s licence for ‘highly suspicious’ misconduct

Paul Pang has had his licence cancelled by the Real Estate Agents Disciplinary Tribunal.

Paul Pang thought his friend had permission to sell a multi-million dollar house.

It was this trust that led to a series of blunders, including duplicating the actual homeowner’s signature, that has now seen Pang’s real estate licence cancelled.

Pang didn’t turn up to the Real Estate Agents Disciplinary Tribunal hearing last year where he was facing charges of misconduct, relating to the attempted sale of a $2 million Remuera property.

The charges claimed he was approached by the homeowner’s daughter, a close friend of his, who said she was acting on behalf of her mother who lived in China and wanted to sell the property.

The daughter gave Pang electronic copies of her mother’s signature and initials but he did not obtain confirmation from the homeowner that she wanted her property listed for sale, or permission to use her signature and initials.

Pang also failed to properly check whether the daughter had been legally appointed to make decisions on her mother’s behalf.

He went on to apply the woman’s signature and initials to a range of documents, including a pre-auction offer and a sale and purchase agreement.

In January this year, the tribunal found Pang guilty of misconduct for not exercising the required level of care or skill when it came to the sale of the property.

“The obligation to communicate directly with the client or a person holding a power of attorney is critical to the professional duties of a licensee,” its decision reads.

The tribunal also found that Pang had lied to his manager about having checked that the homeowner’s daughter had power of attorney and hence the authority to sell the property.

“It is not credible that he believed, if he did, that it was appropriate for him to insert a party’s electronic signature. It is even more improbable that he could have believed it appropriate to handwrite a client’s initial,” the tribunal said.

“Such conduct is highly suspicious and he has chosen not to explain it to the Tribunal.

“He lied, seeking to conceal his wrongdoing. It is not the response of a person who has made an honest mistake.”

In a recently-released decision, the tribunal has opted to cancel his licence.

In his emailed submissions to the tribunal, Pang said unforeseen circumstances prevented him from meeting the actual homeowner in person but he admitted to copying and pasting her signature onto various documents.

He said that his actions didn’t result in any monetary loss for either party involved and that neither the homeowner nor the intended purchaser of the property held him accountable for any wrongdoing.

The tribunal said that Pang’s conduct was not an isolated event but spanned the entire transaction.

“It was wilful,” their decision reads.

The tribunal said that it couldn’t be confident Pang had learned from his mistakes - he hadn’t engaged with the hearing until he made submissions on penalty and hadn’t apologised to the authority for the errors he’d made.

While Pang hasn’t acted as a realtor for several years, the tribunal cancelled his licence altogether and ordered he pay $8000 towards the Professional Conduct Committee’s legal costs in investigating and prosecuting the complaint against him.

Jeremy Wilkinson is an Open Justice reporter based in Manawatū covering courts and justice issues with an interest in tribunals. He has been a journalist for nearly a decade and has worked for NZME since 2022.