Real estate agent in price mix-up let off the hook

A real estate agent who inaccurately advertised a house for the wrong price has been let off the hook. Photo / Getty Images

A real estate agent who inaccurately advertised a house for $30,000 instead of $300,000 has been let off the hook.

A complaint from a homeowner about two real estate agents marketing a New Zealand property prompted the Real Estate Agents Authority (REAA) to conduct an investigation.

A decision to take no further action was made this month.

Names of the homeowner and real estate agents, as well as the address of the property, were withheld in the determination.

The homeowner complained the real estate agent had "consistently" advertised the house at $29900+ instead of $299,000+ for weeks, as well as incorrectly telling prospective buyers it had a carport when it did not.But the agent, while admitting she submitted the copy for one newspaper advertisement stating the property price was $29900+, said she did not have the opportunity to proof-read it.

It was a "printing error", she said, over which she had no control, and the authority accepted any "prudent reader" would realise it was an error.

The agent also said an initial draft of a flyer advertising the property made reference to a "carport" which was deleted before it was printed.

"The committee concluded this was human error and no member of the public was misled [and] therefore it was inconsequential," panel member Geoff Warren said.

The homeowners also complained the agent inaccurately told buyers the home had another offer pending, that it was built in the 1940s - two decades before the house was actually constructed - and that it was professionally painted when the homeowners painted it themselves.

But the agent refuted the complaints - stating she had never told buyers the home had been professionally painted or was built in the 1940s.

She denied ever saying there was another offer pending on the property, but said she made a "statement to the effect there was other interest in the property".

The agent did admit she referred to RV as "Reserved Value" instead of "Rateable Value" to the homeowners in a private email - prompting them to complain the licensee was "confused" about the terminology.

A second agent was accused of "verbally abusing" one of the homeowners after she complained to him - but the agent denied the claim, stating the woman made the comment to him: "I will tell my community what a bad man you are."

The authority decided to take no further action on any of the complaints.