B.C. real estate agent suspended after forging signatures

British Columbia's real estate regulator has suspended the licence of an agent for six months after he admitted to forging signatures on a land assembly deal in Richmond, B.C., nearly a decade ago.

The B.C. Financial Services Authority (BCFSA) said Ramandeep Singh Kooner has also agreed to pay a $10,000 penalty and $5,000 in enforcement expenses based on a consent order proposed by the agent and accepted by the regulator in July. 

"Licensees have a duty to act honestly, with reasonable care and skill and these actions undermine the integrity of the real estate industry and constitute wrongful or deceptive dealing," Raheel Humayun, BCFSA's director of investigations, said in an Aug. 30 press release about the case. 

According to the consent order, three unidentified owners wanted to sell their properties in a land assembly deal in Richmond in 2015. 

On Aug. 21, 2015, the owners signed contracts for the sale of their respective properties — pending a land assembly approval from the city. Kooner, who was licensed with Sutton Group Seafair Realty at the time, got involved the same day to assist with the deal. 

On Sept. 22, Kooner provided the city's letters of authorization to a colleague at Seafair Realty to have them signed by the property owners. 

Two of them didn't do so and went to the city on Sept. 24 to ask about the risk of signing the letters. City staff told them that their letters had already been signed and submitted. The owners, however, didn't recognize their supposed signatures and told City staff that they hadn't allowed him to act on their behalf. 

Kooner said in the consent order that he had gotten verbal consent from the third owner that he could sign the letters for all of them, but the agent acknowledged that he didn't confirm this with the other two owners before submitting the forms to the city. 

The deal ultimately didn't go through and the two owners filed a complaint to the BCFSA's predecessor, the Real Estate Council of British Columbia, according to the consent order.

Kooner, who said in the consent order that he didn't have a discipline history prior to this case, received the maximum fine for misconduct committed by an individual at the time. This ceiling has since been increased to $250,000 per contravention, but it only applies to cases that happened on or after Sept. 30, 2016. 

Findings related to real estate licensees forging signatures are rare, the BCFSA told CBC News Tuesday.

Sutton Group Seafair Realty said in a statement to CBC News that it fully co-operated with the authority throughout the process and has no further comments now that the matter is resolved. 

CBC News has also reached out to Scott Twining, Kooner's legal counsel, for comment.