Pero urged to learn his business
A former Motueka-based real estate saleswoman wants to make her old boss, Mike Pero, learn the business after her complaint about his company was upheld.
After an almost two-year investigation, the Real Estate Agents Authority (REAA) has found that Mike Pero Real Estate did not properly supervise one of its salespeople and franchise holders, Tina Parkin.
Last year it also found the business guilty of not adequately supervising two Auckland salespeople in a separate case, and censured and fined it $2000. The agency is owned by Christchurch-based Mike Pero Real Estate Ltd, which is directed and half-owned by Pero. The businessman and former rich lister is the public face of the company but does not hold a real estate licence.
Parkin complained to the REAA in 2014 after her problems as a Mike Pero Real Estate salesperson in Motueka led to the company taking back her franchise, which she claimed cost her a large sum of money.
The law requires salespeople to be supervised and managed by an agent or branch manager, something the REAA found was not done adequately in Parkin’s case. She told the authority in her complaint that she did not have a supervising agent, her performance was not monitored, no-one from the agency saw her in Motueka for more than a year. In response, the company said the complainant had been required to come to Christchurch monthly for meetings and Mike Pero Real Estate head office personnel had travelled to Nelson ‘‘from time to time’’.
Parkin now works for another real estate business in North Canterbury. She previously made a claim to the Disputes Tribunal over the matter, which led to Mike Pero Real Estate reaching a confi- dential settlement with her.
In its decision, the REAA said the company failed the requirements of the law. It also upheld the same complaint from Parkin against Chris Finnerty, who is compliance manager and licensee for the business but has no ownership stake in it.
The decision noted ‘‘significant deficiencies’’ in the supervision and management of Parkin ’’and by association their broader duty of care duty via the Act to the public’’. Mike Pero Real Estate Ltd and Finnerty have the right to appeal the decision.
Following the ruling, Parkin has the right to have a say in what penalty the REAA hands down. Being made to undertake training or education was one choice listed by the REAA. She has asked that Pero himself be made to study for and obtain a real estate licence.
‘‘How can you own a real estate company and not hold a licence? . . . It is like a lay person telling a surgeon how to perform an operation,’’ she said in her submission to the REAA, following its decision.
Other possible penalties include censure or reprimand, fines of up to $20,000 for a company and $10,000 for an individual, or having to make the business open for inspection. However, while Finnerty, as licensee of Mike Pero Ltd, can be penalised by the REAA, it appears Pero himself may be beyond its reach.
REAA chief executive Kevin Lampen-Smith said it was unlikely they could penalise a director/shareholder of a company found guilty of unsatisfactory conduct.
Pero said Parkin’s request showed her lack of understanding of commerce, business franchising and the Real Estate Agents Act.
‘‘I am a CEO. I do not sell houses,’’ he said. ’’I’m not a real estate agent and I don’t pretend to be one.’’
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