B.C. accountant has to pay $100K for running unlicenced rental business
A Vancouver accountant who managed rental properties for almost two decades without being licenced, and then denied doing so, has been ordered to pay $100,000.
According to a Dec. 3, B.C. Financial Services Authority decision, Yiu Keung Ng, who goes by the name Anthony Ng, managed multiple rental properties largely for overseas clients from 2000 to 2017 through his company Kitsilano Management.
Ng would charge his clients five per cent of the rent he collected monthly for a variety of properties in and around the Vancouver area.
Throughout this time Ng never held a licence from the Real Estate Services Regulations as a brokerage to provide rental property management.
Following two complaints from tenants made against Ng in 2016 and 2017, the Financial Services Authority began an investigation into his dealings.
The decision says in October 2016, Ng called and emailed the Financial Services Authority denying he had any dealings with managing property rentals.
READ MORE: B.C. realtor fined $45K, pay $50K in costs for rent-to-own scheme
Just over a year later Ng, sold his portfolio of rental properties to City 2 City Real Estate Services for $50,000.
While Ng had initially denied managing property rentals he had a change of heart and in July 2018 admitted to the Financial Services Authority that he'd been running the rental management business from 2000 to 2017 without a license.
Ng signed a consent order Dec. 3 admitting to renting properties without a licence and agreed to a $50,000 fine.
Ng will also have to hand over the $50,000 he received for selling his rental property portfolio to the Financial Services Authority.
He's also on the hook for $3,440 to cover the costs of the investigation.
— An editing error incorrectly identified the subject of this story as a Realtor and not an accountant. The headline on this story was changed at 7 a.m. Dec. 20.
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