STIFF FINE “A JOKE” SAYS AGENT
LJ Hooker North Ryde misled buyers of death house.
Article originally published DECEMBER 20, 2004 –Reviewed and approved.
By Neil Jenman
A Sydney real estate agency has been fined $20,900 for misleading behaviour over the sale of a home in which a triple murder occurred.
In August this year, LJ Hooker North Ryde sold the home for $800,000 without telling the buyers about the gruesome events that had taken place. When the buyers discovered the home’s history and refused to proceed with the sale, they faced the loss of their $80,000 deposit.
The real estate agency refused to concede that it had done anything wrong. The buyers were blamed for not asking the right questions.
After weeks of publicity and widespread community outrage, the head office of LJ Hooker finally refunded the deposit to the buyers.
On Friday (December 17) the NSW Department of Fair Trading announced the result of its investigation into the sale. The agent was fined $20,900 for “misleading behaviour”.
A salesperson from LJ Hooker North Ryde, Sturt Hinton, reportedly said the matter was a “joke” and the agency will appeal the decision. Hinton reportedly said that the Department of Fair Trading should “leave honest hard-working agents alone”.
Rowen Kelly from the Real Estate Institute of NSW said that 99.9 per cent of agents do the right thing and that the LJ Hooker North Ryde agency had a “solid reputation”.
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