Failing to let his clients know the strata building they were buying into needed $2-million worth repairs resulted in the recent censure of a Coquitlam real estate agent.
Jitendra Angelo Dehideniya was a newly licensed Realtor when he started working for Sutton Group-West Coast Realty in Coquitlam, according to a judgment recently published by the B.C. Financial Services Authority.
Dehideniya was a junior member of a group dubbed “The BC Elite Real Estate Group.”
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In 2018, he and another real estate agent who acted as his mentor started looking for a White Rock property on behalf of a retired Langley couple.
Dehideniya told BCFSA it was his second deal as an agent.
The agents eventually found the couple a unit in a four-storey wood-frame building that had been built in the mid-1980s.
Bad day at White Rock
An assessment of the strata’s building envelope from 2017 showed “rot and deterioration.”
A consulting firm estimated the repair would likely cost $2 million.
The sale and the documents
In March 18, 2018, the Langley couple inked a deal to buy into the strata for $379,000.
That deal was subject to several conditions, including a review of strata meeting minutes as well as engineering reports and documents pertaining to depreciation.
The seller emailed those documents to Dehideniya on March 20, 2018. The next day, the Langley couple signed an addendum removing all subject conditions.
“At no time prior to the removal of the subjects” did Dehideniya give those documents to the Langley couple, the judgement stated.
Dehideniya told the BCFSA the couple didn’t have email and he: “could not print hundreds of pages and mail them.”
Following the completion of the sale, the Langley couple were in the process of moving into their new home when a strata council member asked if they knew about upcoming building work that came with an estimated $50,000 levy.
When asked about the fee, both Dehideniya and his mentor stated “they were not aware of anything,” according to the buyers.
More than two months after the sale, the Langley couple received the strata documents in the mail from Dehideniya.
The envelope
In April 2019 the strata opted to approve a levy of $2.197 million to fund the building envelope remediation.
Unable to pay their share of the remediation – $61,660 – the Langley couple opted to list their newly-purchased property.
Approximately 15 months after paying $379,000 for the strata, the couple ended up selling the strata for $400,000 minus the levy.
Remedial education
Following a complaint from the couple, BCFSA concluded that Dehideniya failed to act in his clients best interests and ultimately committed professional misconduct.
Besides paying a $30,000 discipline penalty, Dehideniya is also obligated to complete Real Estate Trading Services Remedial Education Course at the Sauder School of Business.
He also has to pay an additional $1,500 to BCFSA for enforcement expenses.
