Achi news desk-
A Winnipeg man’s registration as a real estate agent has been canceled after a family left their home on a tight deadline for a sale that didn’t go through, then switched brokerages and, months later, got $60,000 less for their house than the this is what they expected when they moved out.
A Manitoba Securities Commission panel found that Reginald Wayne Kehler did not engage in misconduct and professional conduct as a registrant when he signed a document on behalf of sellers without their knowledge, lowered the listing price of a home without their approval, and didn’t tell them about it. a month when a prospective buyer had not paid a promised $100,000 deposit.
The sellers, identified as DR and PR in the panel’s decision released Wednesday, were awarded $10,394 from the real estate repayment fund. Kehler was ordered to pay $12,075 to cover the costs of the investigation and hearing.
The sellers were a military family who had to move in 2020 after the husband was posted to Ottawa.
They chose Kehler as their listing agent, because he helped them find the home when they moved to Winnipeg in 2018, and they had a good relationship with him, the panel’s decision said.
They listed their house in May and on June 15, 2020, they received an offer of $570,000 with possession on July 15. A deposit of $100,000 was due within 72 hours of receiving the offer.
Kehler was the seller for both the buyer and the sellers – but the sellers say he never told them that.
He had a form stating that the sellers knew he was also representing the buyer, dated June 15, 2020, filed.
Although it appeared to be signed with the sellers’ names, they said they didn’t see it until March 2021. Neither was even in Winnipeg on June 15.
“Kehler, in his interview with commission staff, acknowledges that the sellers never signed this document – we note that the alleged signatures on the form look nothing like the sellers’ actual signatures on documents others,” said the decision.
Kehler told commission staff that he was authorized to sign on behalf of the vendors, which they denied. The panel found them more credible.
Once the deal was done, the sellers, believing they only had a month before the buyer would take possession of their home, quickly packed up and were ready to move with their two young children.
The buyer never made a deposit
Meanwhile, the buyer hadn’t made the $100,000 deposit before the closing date — but Kehler didn’t tell the sellers.
Kehler told commission staff that was because he believed the deposit was still coming, and he didn’t want to cause more stress for the sellers.
On July 10, just five days before the buyer took possession and the day before the family left Winnipeg, the sellers spoke with Kehler – but he still didn’t tell them the deposit hadn’t been paid.
Kehler said “everything is fine,” according to the decision.
It wasn’t until the evening of July 13, when the family arrived in Toronto on their way to Ottawa and just 36 hours before the scheduled closing, that Kehler told them he had never received the deposit.
In the end, they received $4,000 of the deposit, but the sale of the house never closed. The sellers scrambled to extend the insurance on their old home and ensure they continued to pay the utility bills, the decision said.
Home relisted
Kehler then recommended that they relist the home, and it went back on the market at $574,900.
On August 10, 2020, Kehler recommended that the price be reduced to $569,900. Instead, the seller said he should lower the price to $567,900.
But when the seller looked at the listing online on August 22, it was listed at $564,900.
The sellers also asked Kehler about the upkeep of the property, since they were no longer in Winnipeg. He agreed that he would, but in the end friends went and cut the lawn, the decision says.
The sellers asked Kehler and his brokerage what could be done to “make it right,” the decision said, but never received any responses.
On September 5, they hired a new brokerage to sell the home. Under the new realtor, they accepted an offer on December 13, and closed on January 2, 2021, receiving $507,500 for the home.
Kehler’s actions were “contrary to the public interest” and undermined “public confidence in the real estate industry,” the decision said.
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