Vancouver realtor hit with $110K fine for deceptive real estate investment
Posted July 28, 2024 2:09 pm.
A Vancouver realtor committed professional misconduct and has been fined $110,000 for deceptive real estate investment, the BC Financial Services Authority (BCFSA) says.
Wendy Mills and her personal real estate corporation have also had their licences suspended.
The BCFSA says between 2018 and 2020, Mills approached a client she had worked with for a real estate sale in Vancouver with an opportunity to buy, renovate, and sell a property together.
Under the agreement, the client gave Mills $60,000 and was promised a $20,000 return on investment, for a total of $80,000.
“Mills made some initial inquiries about the property but did not purchase it, in part due to extraordinary personal and family stresses,” the BCFSA said in a consumer alert.
“Despite that fact, she falsely represented to her client that she had purchased, renovated, and sold the property for a profit. She paid $20,000 to the client in the summer and fall of 2018.”
The client then asked for the $60,000 back, at which point Mills offered to roll the $60,000 into buying and renovating a second property — once again promising profit of $20,000.
“Again, Mills misrepresented to the client that she had purchased and renovated the second property, when she had not and had taken no steps to do so,” association said.
“Following a series of requests for payment and commencement of a lawsuit by the client, Mills paid her client back $70,500 of the $80,000 promised – composed of the $60,000 initial investment and $20,000 in promised profit on the second property.”
The BCFSA says Mills did not inform her brokerage of the real estate services she was providing for her client. This includes written agreements for each property.
She also didn’t deliver the clients funds to her brokerage, as she was required to do.
Licences for both Mills and her corporation were cancelled as of July 18, 2024. On top of the discipline penalty, they have been ordered to pay $5,000 in enforcement expenses.
