B.C. real estate firm fined $18,000 over sales at Trump Tower
A B.C. real estate agency is on the hook for $20,000 after investigators found the brokerage had broken numerous regulations including sales at Trump Tower.
According to a Sept. 29 B.C. Financial Services Authority decision, Vancouver-based AISA Realty Corp., which does business as AISA Real Estate Services, broke more than a dozen regulations from not having its company name listed in its building directory to not keeping records of sales for units at Vancouver's Trump Tower.
The decision said in 2016 investigators received an anonymous tip the co-owners of the brokerage were providing rental property management services without a licence to do so. All the names of the company's directors have been redacted in the decision.
The decision said in 2017 the investigation into the brokerage began.
Investigators found that the managing broker did not have access to the company's books or records and had not reviewed the bank or trust accounts since he had become the managing broker in 2014.
The unnamed broker then surrendered his real estate licence.
The decision said the broker had previously been investigated for providing unlicensed rental management services via his former company in 2012 and that he is no longer licenced. Investigators then audited the company's books and found multiple breaches of the regulations.
"The Brokerage had provided real estate trading services to... the developer of the Trump Tower beginning in 2014; however, the Brokerage did not have a written services agreement with the developer," the decision read. "(A) rental service agreement... did not contain a provision respecting the use and distribution of personal information."
The Financial Service Authority found the managing broker had been managing rental properties without a licence for multiple buildings between 2012 and 2016.
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Investigators also found multiple banking irregularities.
"The brokerage had not prepared monthly bank reconciliations for the brokerage’s trust and general accounts for the time period July to December 2016," the decision read. "The Brokerage had not recorded accounting transactions from July 1, 2016, onward in its general ledger. The Brokerage had not prepared or retained monthly liability to asset reconciliations for the Brokerage’s pooled trust account for the period July to December 2016."
The decision said all conditions and restrictions were removed from AISA Real Estate Services licence in 2019.
Ultimately, the Financial Service Authority found the company responsible for 13 acts of professional misconduct and issued an $18,500 fine plus $1,500 in fees.
The recently published decision said the company signed a consent agreement admitted to professional misconduct in December 2021.
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