A real estate agent banned for having kidnapped a rival

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Stephanie Gendron

Monday, February 26, 2018 08:03

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Monday, February 26, 2018 08:03

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A real estate agent in the Bas-Saint-Laurent was banned for life for having trapped, kidnapped and threatened a representative of a competitor, because it holds the company liable for the losses of customers that it has undergone for several years.

Yvan Dubé saw red when he received a brochure from another company, which one has to silence the name to preserve the anonymity of the victim, in the mailbox of his house that he was trying to sell for a year.

He has hatched a plan to spend his frustrations. The broker has invented an identity and brought in a representative of the competitor at his residence last December, claiming that he wanted to sell his house through this company.

On his arrival, “he immediately locks the door behind her and forces her to sit on a chair ( … ), and adopts a hostile attitude. He keeps insulting and threatening, prevents him from leaving the house and benefits even to take pictures of her,” can we read in an account of the proceedings of the disciplinary committee of the Organisme d’autoréglementation du courtage immobilier du Québec (OACIQ).

The representative managed to escape during a moment of distraction of the real estate agent, before calling a work colleague, and then the police, who went looking for it in a service station. Since then, it has stopped working and says it is closing in his home in fear of reliving a similar situation.

“A Punching bag”

The broker has pleaded guilty to the offences alleged to have either “kidnapped, threatened and intimidated a representative (…) in a block sale, of which he is the owner and where he had drawn it in a subterfuge”, which committed an infringement of article 69 of the Regulation on the conditions for the exercise of a brokerage transaction. According to Caroline Champagne of the OACIQ, there have probably never been other similar cases.

At the hearing, the man said that he regretted his actions and explained his behavior by “blaming (the company) for the loss of customers that he undergoes in his region for several years,” wrote one.

He said he was continually receiving by mail the brochures of the competitor and as received in December 2017 was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

When asked what he would do to avoid the repetition of these unfortunate events, he replied : “I will buy a “punching bag”, it will help me to pass my frustrations.”

Its disciplinary committee has ordered the permanent suspension of his license as a real estate broker. It has until march 12 to go to appeal.