Apartment-search company offered a valuable service
Re: “Apartment-screening business closes” (Business, June 19)
I was greatly disheartened to read about the Organisme d’autoréglementation du courtage immobilier du Québec’s decision to serve Nikki Middlemiss with two notices of infraction under the Real Estate Brokerage Act, forcing her to shut down her apartment-search service, 4½.
When my husband and I were trying to find an apartment in Montreal while living in South Carolina back in 2003, I would have paid Middlemiss two or three times the money she charged for her assistance. There was simply no one offering the services that Middlemiss offers. I should mention that we are both fluent in French and were able to search for such businesses in French, as many soon-to-be Montrealers are not.
So my husband and I spent our first year in an apartment about the size of a rabbit hutch.
Even though our circumstances are now greatly different, my husband and I were hoping to work with 4½ for our next apartment search after learning about her services in an article The Gazette published a few months ago. Many people, especially working professionals, desperately need the time-saving service that 4½ offered but do not need all the legal and negotiation services provided by an accredited broker.
After reading the Real Estate Brokerage Act in French and in English, I simply cannot understand how exactly Middlemiss violated it. And how it is even legally acceptable to serve someone with an infraction for “leaving an impression”?
I hope that other Gazette readers who are as appalled by this as I was will consider writing a letter to the OACIQ to express their discontent.