Estate agent complaints upheld

Complaints upheld against a South Auckland real estate agent were brought by a building inspection business and a vendor.

Debbie Lovegrove of Lovegrove Realty, which trades as The Professionals in Manurewa and Papatoetoe, had two determinations issued against her by the Real Estate Agents Authority within one month.

"This is a first," said the authority's spokesman.

Most New Zealand real estate agents have no complaints against them and those who have had findings issued have never had those made within such a short time frame, the spokesman said.

The first complaint was for inserting a clause in a purchase agreement stating any building inspector could be used, except a specific company.

A franchisor of a property inspection company, which works mainly for buyers, said Lovegrove steered customers away.

Lovegrove said the inspector was over the top, made "gross over extraction (sic) of his reports and scares a lot of potential buyers off".

The authority found her guilty of unsatisfactory conduct, saying people should be free to choose their own service providers.

In the second decision, a vendor complained she breached his privacy and compromised his security by using photos of his house which he had sold using Lovegrove Realty. A tenant was being sought for the house but the complainant/vendor was still living there with his family and was concerned about security.