West Vancouver realtor punished for acting as unlicensed rental agent of overseas landlord
The regulator body has fined Cheryl Chih Yu Kang and ordered her, at her own expense, to complete a remedial course on real estate trading services.
Cheryl Chih Yu Kang is a real estate agent who acted as an unlicensed rental agent for an overseas owner of a West Vancouver property.
Not only this but she also violated terms in the Real Estate Services act as she provided services outside of her brokerage.
Kang and a friend were both paid by the landlord for the task of managing the property. Kang also claims that the property owner is a personal friend.
The landlord bought the Millsteam Road home in 2010.
However, if the tenant was actually satisfied with the management of the property, Kang probably would not have been discovered to be an unlicensed rental agent, however due to her lack of skills in the field she was caught.
The tenant who has been renting the property for over two years was concerned about safety for a tree that is located at the neighbour's home.
Kang responded by email, saying the tree is outside the landlord’s control, and that the neighbour has no obligation to cut it.
“If you really have the safety concern then you may seek for other houses with not many trees around and I will be willing to negotiating (sic) to terminate the current lease for you,” Kang wrote.
Not only did the complainant follow up on this but they also addressed other concerns such as the safety of the sink garburator.
The complainant told Kang in an email: “I am very surprised by your lack of professionalism and the way you handle customer issues.”
The tenant also noted that she thinks Kang wants her to “evacuate the rental property before the contract expires”.
“I would reserve the right to contact the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, and Real Estate Council of BC, advising them about your misconduct in dealing with the above issues as a realtor who rented me the property,” the complainant wrote.
“Please provide us with the landlord’s information as we would like to send her an email out of courtesy before we take this to the next level,” the tenant wrote in an email to Kang.
Noble & Associates, a licensed property management firm, subsequently took over the rental management for the property.
The firm was introduced to the landlord by Kang.
Kang initially denied to council investigators that she provided real estate services to the landlord.
The realtor was ordered to pay a discipline fee of $7,500, and enforcement costs of $1,500.
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