$170,000 rort, $750 fines

Estate agent Graeme Sawyer, who allegedly tried to buy $400,000 flats for himself for $230,000.

A real estate agent has been found guilty of knocking down the price of two units to almost half their asking price in an attempt to buy the properties himself. For this his firm was fined the maximum by the industry - $750 on each of three charges.

The matter was handled by a Real Estate Institute investigation subcommittee, which found that the agent, Graeme Sawyer, acted unethically and unfairly over the sale on behalf of Deb Leask, who wanted $400,000 for her flats.

The Napier agent's actions and the fine have outraged the vendor. "I want these bastards crucified," Ms Leask said from Queensland yesterday.

"This is totally dishonest. The institute tried to cover it up and took two years to deal with this matter because I live in Australia. They thought I'd go away. The institute is not competent to investigate its own members."

She is asking Associate Justice Minister Clayton Cosgrove to investigate the institute with a view to better procedures for complaints and harsher penalties for offending agents.

The case comes as the industry faces calls to clean up its act, and the Commerce Commission threatens tough action.

Rules governing agents' behaviour were set 30 years ago, and even the industry agrees the maximum fines are inadequate.

Critics are also calling for an end to behind-closed-doors disciplining of agents. Under present rules, the disciplinary action is handled by the estate agents' membership organisation.

Mr Sawyer's agency, CD Realty trading as Bayleys Napier, pleaded guilty to three separate offences and was fined the maximum $750 on each count.

Ms Leask said Mr Sawyer - at the time the sales manager of listing agency Bayleys Napier - had tried to buy her two units at 4/74 and 5/74 The Esplanade at a massive discount.

But he failed to declare he was the person attempting to buy them - and at such a low price. She subsequently sold the properties for $369,000 through Harveys of Napier.

The situation arose after she listed the townhouses for $400,000 with Mr Sawyer's colleague, John Payne, at Bayleys Napier. The institute found both men had broken institute rules.

Mr Payne listed the units at $230,000 - not much more than half Ms Leask's asking price.

Mr Sawyer told her he had a registered valuation of $230,000 when no such valuation had been obtained.

The agency failed to enter $400,000 on a listing agreement and substituted the knockdown price of $250,000.

The institute said Mr Sawyer tried to buy the property himself.

Mr Sawyer, now working at Property Brokers in Napier, said yesterday he did not want to discuss the deal.

"I deny I tried to buy her place for half the asking price. It was not me that was taken to the institute but the firm, although there were some errors made by staff," he said.

Eoin Carty, the licensee in charge of Bayleys Napier, said the matter was complicated.

"It would take me half an hour to explain all this because it was a comedy of errors. The institute wanted to give us a slap on the wrist."

Asked about the meagre $750 fine, Mr Carty said money was not the issue. "It's more the principle of the thing. We don't like our name to be muddied."

The vendor's father, Bernie Leask of Napier, said he was appalled by the case and wanted action to ensure people were protected.

This case comes after last month's ruling in the Wellington District Court involving former Harveys agent Timothy Whitehead, who advertised a home in the Wellington suburb of Northland at "buyer inquiries over" $380,000, even though he knew the owner's bottom line was $400,000.

He escaped conviction - an outcome Consumers Institute chief David Russell called "disappointing".