A trio of real estate agents has agreed to pay more than $120,000 combined to resolve misconduct allegations stemming from a transaction that took place in Tulameen, B.C., in 2023.
Ashley Doherty-Tullis, Tyler Willis and Brenda Crawford each entered separate consent order agreements with the B.C. Financial Services Authority over the last two months, admitting to their respective misconduct and agreeing to pay penalties and enforcement expenses.
According to the documents, all three licensees worked for the same brokerage, Haayer Group Ventures Ltd., which operates as Royal LePage Princeton Realty.
Doherty-Tullis and Willis were registered with the BCFSA as a “team,” while Crawford was the managing broker of the business.
The BCFSA requires real estate licensees to register as a team if they present themselves to the public as a single entity, regularly act as designated agents of the same client or “regularly work together in a manner that creates implied agency with the same party,” according to the regulator.
The requirement helps ensure that clients understand who is representing them and who owes them professional and fiduciary duties, the BCFSA said in a recent news release about an unrelated case.
“The Willis Tullis Team,” as it was known, divided clients between the two licensees, with one or the other serving as the “lead” agent and handling communication with the client, according to the consent orders.
The documents indicate the team took on a retired couple in Tulameen as clients in August 2023. They were looking to sell their home and relocate closer to their family elsewhere in the Okanagan Valley.
Doherty-Tullis was the lead agent for the listing. After being contacted by prospective buyers in October 2023, she submitted a request to the BCFSA to de-register the team, according to the consent orders.
Doherty-Tullis also asked the sellers to sign an addendum removing Willis from the listing, which she told them would allow him to represent the buyers and move forward with the transaction.
“Ms. Doherty-Tullis did not advise the sellers of any other consequences of removing Mr. Willis from the multiple listing contract, including, for example, that Mr. Willis would be putting his client’s interests above theirs, or that information he had gained about the sellers and/or the property could be used for the buyers’ best interests,” Doherty-Tullis’ consent order reads.
In a similar vein, Willis reached out to the buyers, but did not tell them he had previously worked for the sellers, according to his consent order.
The $800,000 transaction ultimately went ahead, but the parties were never presented with an “agreement regarding conflict of interest between clients” form, which the consent orders indicate Willis should have done.
In his agreement, Willis admitted that he had failed to take reasonable steps to avoid a conflict of interest and failed to disclose and document his conflict of interest in writing. He agreed to pay the BCFSA a $40,000 discipline penalty, plus an additional $9,011.25, representing the amount he received in commission from the transaction. He also agreed to complete remedial education and pay $2,300 in enforcement expenses.
Doherty-Tullis admitted that she had failed to act in the best interests of her clients when referring Willis to the buyers, failed to maintain her clients’ confidentiality and failed to take reasonable steps to avoid a conflict of interest.
Her consent order requires her to pay a penalty of $70,769.68, plus $2,475 in enforcement expenses, and complete remedial education.
As the managing broker, Crawford was required to ensure that the brokerage’s business was carried out competently and in accordance with the Real Estate Services Act. She admitted that she failed to do so in this case and agreed to take a remedial course and pay $1,500 in enforcement expenses.
In all, the monetary penalties imposed total $126,055.93.
“BCFSA is committed to building and maintaining confidence in British Columbia’s real estate market through proactive supervision and enforcement when professional standards are not met,” the regulator said in a news release about the case.
