Unethical Cases

Agents' 'Greed' Prompts Warnings

2009-07-24T21:07:00.000+08:00

Agents 'Greed' Prompts Warnings
Source : TODAY, Jul 24, 2009

'Fee for secure booking' practice reportedly rampant at Meadows@Peirce

THE sizzling-hot property market and the rush by buyers to secure choice units have led some property agents to turn greedy.

Some agents are offering potential buyers their services to secure a booking for their choice units if they pay them a commission. This has prompted at least two marketing agencies to warn their agents against this practice.

This scheme is reportedly rampant at the freehold Meadows@Peirce development near Teachers' Estate, which is supposed to be open for preview only from today.

Some marketing agents, however, told Today that it is the potential buyers that are offering commissions to agents to secure for them their choice units.

The fee earned by these agents is said to be about 1 per cent of the property value. With unit prices at Meadows@Peirce ranging from $900,000 to more than $1 million, these agents could potentially earn between $9,000 and more than $10,000 for each unit that they can secure for an eager buyer.

In an email to its 3,000 associates on Wednesday, ERA Realty Network, one of the marketing agents for the project, warned: "Please do NOT collect commission from buyers for Meadows@Peirce or any other projects. Anyone caught doing so will be terminated from ERA and no commission will be paid to the associates."

ERA's associate director Eugene Lim said the email was a "preventive measure".

"We want to stop it before anyone receives a commission. It is not right," he added.

Of late, ERA has been cracking the whip on its agents in an industry where complaints of rogue or ignorant agents are rife. Last week, ERA warned its agents against submitting transactions under the names of senior colleagues to garner a higher share of the commissions.

And in February, a couple successfully sued ERA after its agents profited from "flipping" an apartment they were engaged to sell. The couple had sold their apartment through ERA agent Jeremy Ang, but it turned out that the buyer, Ms Natassha Sadiq, was the wife of his boss Mike Parikh, a senior director at ERA. She immediately resold the unit for a $257,000 gain.

Another marketing agent for Meadows@Peirce also issued an email warning a few days ago. Knight Frank reminded its 700 agents that they cannot receive or ask for commission from buyers, cannot collect an entrance fee into the showflat and cannot ask for blank cheques, which can subsequently cause the buyer to feel pressured to make a purchase.

The company's executive director Foo Suan Peng said: "This is something we don't condone because it will give rise to conflict of interest."

Agents Today spoke to said the "fee for secured booking" practice happens with other projects, too. One said there was "nothing wrong" for buyers to pay agents, as both are willing parties.

Singapore Accredited Estate Agencies chief executive Tan Tee Khoon disagrees. He told Today: "The agent receives a commission from buyers when they are already hired by the developer to provide the services. That is unethical."

Lawyer Struck Off Rolls

2009-07-08T21:09:00.000+08:00

Lawyer Struck Off Rolls
Source : The Straits Times, July 8, 2009

LAWYER David Tan Hock Boon, who was part of a group which swindled banks and the CPF Board by declaring inflated purchase prices, was struck off the rolls on Wednesday for gross professional misconduct.

Tan, 40, who was represented by lawyer Wong Siew Hoong at the Supreme Court hearing, was jailed five years last November for his part in the property scam.
-- PHOTO: CRO

The Court of Three Judges, presided by Judge of Appeal Andrew Phang, took less than 10 minutes to make the ruling in the suit brought by the Law Society.

Tan, 40, who was represented by lawyer Wong Siew Hoong at the Supreme Court hearing, was jailed five years last November for his part in the property scam.

He had then pleaded guilty to being part of an elaborate housing scam that cheated banks out of almost $700,000 in just over a year. Tan was one of five people connected to the plot which also involved rogue fugitive-lawyer David Rasif.

Tan had conceived the scam in 2003 to swindle banks and the Central Provident Fund (CPF) Board by falsely declaring the purchase prices of properties.

His partners included property agent Goh Chong Liang and Rasif, who went missing in June 2006 with about $12 million of his clients' money.

Their plan saw Goh convince sellers and buyers of properties, mainly HDB flats, to declare inflated purchase prices. Armed with phoney documents such as CPF and employment records, they secured mortgages well above the value of the houses.

Three others involved in the scam, all non-lawyers have already been convicted and are behind bars for jail terms varying between 12 and 65 months. Rasif remains on the run.

Tan, a father of two young children, stopped practising law in April 2006 on leaving Rasif's law firm and became a freelance business development manager.

Dirty Tricks Some Agents Play

2009-02-09T09:02:00.000+08:00

Dirty Tricks Some Agents Play
Source : The Sunday Times, Feb 8, 2009

REFUSING TO CO-BROKE A PROPERTY

Co-broking is when more than one agent is involved in a property transaction - for example, if one agent introduces a buyer to another agent.

Because the commission from a co-brokered sale will have to be shared, some agents may refuse to meet or follow up on clients from other agents, to avoid splitting up their commission.

'This prevents a client's property from getting maximum exposure and is not in his best interests.

'To see if this is the case, clients can call their agent from an unknown number, pretend to be another agent, and see what they say,' said Mr Mohamed Ismail, chief executive officer of PropNex.

OVERPROMISING

'Some agents tell sellers they have a ready buyer for a very high price so that sellers will appoint them exclusively for a period of time,' said Ms Florence Choo, a real estate agent in her 50s.

'It may then turn out they did not actually have a ready buyer, and sellers may be forced to settle for a lower price as they cannot hold on to the property any longer.'

WORKING FOR MORE THAN ONE COMPANY

Agents should work for only one company, but some carry more than one name card - that is, they get to access more than one firm's client listings.

Because different agencies have different pay structures, such an agent may take a client under one agency's listing but close the deal under another agency which pays him better.

In such a situation, the client may not suffer a loss but the affected property firm gets the bum rap.

HIJACKING

Hijacking refers to an agent going behind another agent's back and stealing his clients by promising them a better deal and urging the clients to sign with him instead.

'It's really not nice and unethical of some agents to approach the seller on their own without notifying the original agent and stealing their client,' said Ms Susan Lim, 28, a property agent.

This is an example of the cut-throat competition among property agents.