Susan McGougan, ReMax Of Nanaimo, Www.homesnanaimo.ca, 266 Frankies Place Susan McGougan, a ReMax of Nanaimo realtor, www.homesnanaimo.ca, is guilty of unethical behaviour, negligence and incompetence (professional misconduct) + failing to act in her clients' best interest and fairly represent the situation to potential purchasers of 266 Frankies Place in order to make a commission as quickly as possible Nanaimo British Columbia

Susan McGougan - www.homesnanaimo.ca, a ReMax of Nanaimo realtor, is guilty of unethical behaviour, negligence and incompetence (professional misconduct). She failed to act in her clients' best interest or fairly represent the situation to potential purchasers of 266 Frankies Place in order to make a commission for herself as quickly as possible.

I went to see 266 Frankies Place, a rancher in Nanaimo with my realtor. I loved it and asked my realtor to set up a 2nd viewing as soon as possible with an intent to submit an offer. Unbeknown to either of us, however, someone had already submitted an offer on the property on the morning of our day of viewing, yet Susan McGougan, the realtor listing the property, had negligently failed to inform us of this, so when my realtor went to set up the 2nd viewing, unfortunately he found out about it too late. HAD I KNOWN/BEEN WARNED ABOUT THE OFFER, THEN I COULD HAVE SUBMITTED A COUNTER OFFER IN TIME.

I am British and in England we can "gazump", which means that up until the day the purchaser moves in, another interested party can offer the seller more money to sell the property to them instead. Unfortunately, the laws are different in Canada, which means that it is far more vital that a potential purchaser is informed of the status of the situation. In desperation and not knowing what else to do, I knocked on the sellers' door and told them what had happened and that as a result, I had lost the chance to make an offer on the property, which meant that they had also and consquently lost the opportunity to make more money on it as 2 potential purchasers could have ended up bidding each other up. I also told them I felt that their property was seriously undervalued compared to the many others I had seen and that Susan, their realtor, had underpriced it. I gave them some examples. Les & Debbie, the sellers, were v. upset by all this information. They said that they had been inundated with viewings, but had felt "a tremendous amount of pressure" to accept the offer. They said that they would talk to their realtor, Susan McGougan the next day to see what they could do as they were also v. upset for me and v. sympathetic to my situation.

In the meantime, I had e-mailed Susan about my concerns, but simply received a reply from her to say that her duty was to present an offer to the sellers as quickly as possible, to which I responded of course, but not to the exclusion of other competing offers!! I told her that she was not representing or acting in her clients' best interests as a result, but clearly only interested in getting her commission as quickly as possible.

The following morning my realtor called me to say that Les & Debbie had not actually submitted the contract and were now refusing to hand it back in the light of the new information, which meant that I had the chance to submit an offer after all! I raced to my realtor's office and put in an offer that was $3000 above the asking price of $325,000 and also had fewer subject removals than the other party, but to my horror I received a call from my realtor later that day to say that Les & Debbie had decided to go with the other side after all for reasons that had nothing to do with money. I subsequently discovered that although the contract had not been submitted, the person who had put in the original offer had instructed a lawyer to coerce, bludgeon and frighten Les & Debbie into returning the contract on the basis of their verbal agreement, something that would hold no water at all in the UK and even over here would only be a matter of 1 person's word against the other.

Since then I have unsuccessfully tried to seek assistance from several lawyers all to no avail and have been so distressed over the unfairness of the situation that my health has plummeted. As I have MS (multiple sclerosis), this has dire implications and potential consequences. I have also barely eaten or slept.

The rancher was quite gorgeous and despite seeing 100s of other properties, I have been unable to find anything like it, especially for the price. I have talked to the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board (VIREB) and it seems that I have a valid complaint against Susan McGougan for unethical behaviour, negligence and incompetence (professional misconduct), which I am in the process of filing and hopefully she will be disciplined accordingly.

In the meantime, I would urge anyone selling a property NOT to use Susan McGougan or her company, www.homesnanaimo.ca and anyone buying a property that she is listing to be v. sure of the status of the situation. BUYER BEWARE!!!!

Debbie
NANAIMO, British Columbia
Canada

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