There wasn\u2019t much of an official reaction from the Real Estate Council of B.C. to Premier Christy Clark\u2019s announcement this week that it will no longer be allowed to regulate the conduct of realtors on its own.<\/p>\n
But whistleblowers, who were among the first to bring the industry\u2019s failings and unscrupulous activities to the media, leading to a damning report and the provincial government\u2019s move to bring in widespread changes, said plenty.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a chance to do better. The solutions were so easy,\u201d said Re\/Max agent Keith Roy. He served on the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver\u2019s professional standards committee for two years before recently feeling blackballed by other members for openly airing his concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is resignation and disappointment, but acceptance,\u201d said Roy. \u201cThere will be a loss of self-regulation. It\u2019ll be something that is thrown upon us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy impression is that if had we ourselves enacted 80% of (what the report this week recommends), we would have been left alone,\u201d said Roy. \u201cNow, we will have to meet 100% of the (recommendations when they are implemented), but 20% of them will be a bureaucratic nightmare with no impact on consumer protection.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat part of it will be window dressing. Every time the government takes over, there is more paperwork. This is not something the government wanted to take over. They were very reluctant to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roy said an opportunity was missed when stories about aggressive contract assigning and dubious conduct by the owner of New Coast Realty started to emerge. He said the council should have moved quickly to take away the company\u2019s license. Instead, it imposed a list of conditions under which it could continue operating.<\/p>\n
Said Roy: \u201cWe could have done it before, but we were too busy selling houses.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morning Yu, who was one of the former New Coast agents who spoke to The Vancouver Sun in March about being owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in commission fees reacted to this week\u2019s news: \u201cIt\u2019s great. I hope that government can do more to monitor realty companies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yu is still mostly concerned with being paid her outstanding commissions and said she intends to launch a suit against New Coast next week. \u201cThe council could not do anything to help me.\u201d<\/p>\n
She has engaged lawyer Wayne Ryan to handle her case. In part, he said, they waited for the release of the report because its details, and the reaction to it, \u201cwill assist in our notice of claim.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bill Messer is now retired, but in 2012 he acted as the managing broker for New Coast Realty when it was founded by businessman Ze Ye Wu. Wu was forced to step aside from his responsibilities after The Globe and Mail newspaper released an audio tape of him training his agents to pressure home sellers for fast sales at low prices so that colleagues could step in and flip the properties and make a maximum profit for the company.<\/p>\n
Not too long into his position, Messer was concerned about the company. At the time, it was mostly about its \u201chandling of rentals and using other realtors to sell properties and taking a fee for it,\u201d recalled his spouse, Donna Messer.<\/p>\n
Bill said he tried to go to the council, mainly \u201cto protect ourselves as brokers. I wrote letters. A couple. I talked to them on the phone.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the end, the message they got from the council, said Donna, was that it was \u201cprobably a good idea for us to get out of the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
They did and have moved on, but for those who are still in the thick of the real estate industry, \u201cthere are a lot of problems,\u201d said Bill.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny changes will be good. Far too many people have it too easy. As a start, if you increased the education barriers, it would shake out a lot of the players and self-regulation would start to happen on its own.\u201d<\/p>\n
In interviews with its lawyers and the company\u2019s recently appointed chief compliance officer, New Coast has repeatedly denied allegations. A statement on its website says: \u201cThere were allegations of wrongdoing detailed in some media reports. New Coast Realty and its agents have denied the allegations. The company is co-operating with investigations by the Real Estate Council of British Columbia.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, real estate boards \u2014 which exist to represent agents in different regions of the province \u2014 differed from each other in tone with their official reaction.<\/p>\n
The Fraser Valley Real Estate Board said it \u201cstrongly supports moving forward with the recommendations brought forward\u201d by the independent panel as well as Clark\u2019s announcement to end self-regulation of the industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur board is in full support of initiatives that will promote higher standards of practice for licensees and brokerages in BC and, more importantly, enhance the level of protection for our clients.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are disappointed in the government\u2019s decision to remove the privilege of self-regulation, however, we are encouraged that the premier is still committed to moving forward with the (panel\u2019s) recommendations.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver said the government\u2019s acceptance of the panel recommendations is a \u201cpositive development for the real estate profession. Many of the recommendations address issues that (we have) long advocated for, with the support of our members.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, said its president Dan Morrison in a statement: \u201cWe take offence to the distorted image presented of our membership this week.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe more than 12,800 (agents) in Greater Vancouver were unfairly tarred with a negative brush this week, because of the actions of a few who allegedly failed to act in the best interests of their clients. They don\u2019t represent the profession as a whole. The vast majority of (agents) are hard-working, knowledgeable professionals who act with integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n