The Real Estate Authority contacted him in November 2020, confirming the voluntary suspension of his licence from then till the following November.
He was advised he did not need to complete continuing professional development during the suspension period but he would need to complete that in the calendar year in which he revived his licence.
Last November, the authority emailed Shaw telling him he needed to do professional development and it again reminded him of that in February this year.
Shaw sent an email to the authority on March 2 this year, saying he had replied stating that he had put his licence on hold the previous year and did not need to undertake professional development.
But on March 3, an authority officer rang Shaw, telling him the Real Estate Agents Act was prescriptive. He had to complete the development or the Registrar would cancel his licence.
He had been advised at various times he needed to do something, but he did nothing, the ruling noted.
When he was contacted about his licence being cancelled, he had a week or two to renew his suspension but his new business and family got hit by Covid-19 in February and he forgot to do it on time, the ruling said.
It was "extreme that he is being penalised for a clerical error", he told the tribunal.
Yet the tribunal found the authority was indeed correct to cancel his licence because he had not carried out his continuing professional development.
In an email to the tribunal in May, Shaw accepted that he received the emails from the authority.
But he said he did not open them because he was out of the industry and most emails were not relevant to him.
He wrongly thought that the renewal of the suspension was at the end of March and that if he did not renew, the worst that could happen would be his licence would lapse.
While legally the authority might be correct in banning him for five years, that seemed to be massive overkill for being tardy about reading emails and not paying the fee of $100 on time, he said.
In another email to the tribunal in May, Shaw said it was quite ridiculous that by not paying the fee of $100 on time, he was deemed to be practising real estate, even though a person had to be employed to do so.
Because he did not pay the fee, he was barred from practising for five years, he said. A doctor or lawyer had to do something highly negligent or criminal to be barred, Shaw told the tribunal.
The tribunal said it was not disputed by Shaw that he was correctly required to complete the specified professional develoment and refresher hours by certain dates, that he received the required communications and hence the statutorily prescribed process was followed. He did not complete those hours by the deadlines.
That being the case, the Registrar must cancel his licence, the tribunal ruled.
Shaw now cannot hold a licence again for five years as a result of the cancellation, the tribunal said.
Shaw says he now works in the storage sector in Hamilton.
"I guess I just wanted the option," he said of his chance to return to real estate.
"I might have gone back. I was in real estate for 27 years and won national awards. I was pretty well respected but I decided to do other things," he said.
Shaw had worked at Bayleys Hamilton for 27 years.
Asked about the ruling, he told the Herald:
"There's absolutely no leeway with them. Whether it's a clerical error or not, they'll cancel your licence even if you're a day late. I would have thought if you didn't renew, your licence would just lapse but apparently, it doesn't.
"They say you can't have a licence again for five years. I'll never do it; I'll be 60 by then," Shaw said.
He knows of commercial agents who have lost their clients "tens and millions of dollars" and they don't have any penalties against them.
Shaw cited a property which was worth triple what it was sold for "and the owner trusted the agent and asked him if it was a good deal. The industrial block in Cambridge was sold. The new owner is now selling the land for 10 times what he paid for it", Shaw said.
