Agent loses licence over signatures for $2m property sale
Paul Pang thought his friend had permission to sell a multimillion-dollar Auckland house.
It was this trust, he said, 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 Pang had lied to his manager about having checked 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 on to various documents.
He said that his actions did not result in any monetary loss for either party involved and neither the homeowner nor the intended purchaser of the property held him accountable for any wrongdoing.
The tribunal said Pang’s conduct was not an isolated event but spanned the entire transaction.
“It was wilful,” its decision reads. The tribunal said it could not be confident Pang had learned from his mistakes.
He had not engaged with the hearing until he made submissions on penalty and he had not apologised to the authority for the errors he had made.
While Pang has not acted as a real estate agent 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.