A legal professional for a Cambridge actual property dealer says a discipline listening to into allegations against his customer should be dropped due to an “abuse of process” via Ontario’s actual property regulator.
Steve Bailey is accused of more than one ethical breaches of the legal guidelines governing the province’s real estate industry and is dealing with a disciplinary listening to this summer time.
On Friday, his lawyer Lorne Honickman informed a Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO) panel that the regulator acted in bad religion in pursuing court cases towards the dealer — and urged them to throw out the case.
A lawyer for RECO argued in reaction the regulator has no longer been unfair to Bailey, the case is in the public hobby and the evidence against the dealer ought to be heard in a public area hearing.
He stated it might be “extraordinary” to throw out a case in a professional field system earlier than it reaches trial.
He met with a RECO investigator in May 2017, after anonymous complaints were called into RECO, but wasn’t officially told he changed into beneath research till August 2017.
Bailey was on the regulator’s board of directors on the time, and so RECO handled his case otherwise than others, the lawyer said.
He stated the policies have been now not observed and tried to color the lead investigator as cheating.
“They have been just like the police who broke right into a house to get the proof, then said ‘Whoa, we ought to go get a warrant and do this the proper manner,'” he said.
“What took place to Mr. Bailey will with a bit of luck by no means manifest once more.”
Honickman told the panel his customer’s recognition turned into also broken by way of a public declaration RECO issued, wherein it unique the allegations towards Bailey. RECO has stated that announcement become issued to reassure the general public that it takes all court cases critically.
His client’s rights were trampled, and that hurts the “integrity of the judicial system,” Honickman argued.
RECO panel chair Paul Kupferstein interrupted the legal professional and requested how a judicial listening to is supposed to weigh an accused’s rights as opposed to the general public hobby without getting all the proof first.
“How do you decide that without an ordeal?” he asked.
Bailey is also accused of ethical breaches after a controversial house sale in Plattsville involving his mother-in-regulation, who’s also an actual estate agent at the Bailey Group. The could-be buyers complained to RECO that Bailey authorized a deal where the seller acquired heaps much less than their offer on the table.
RECO’s attorneys disputed the claim that Bailey has suffered from any abuse of method, and stated the regulator had acted inaccurate religion in managing the court cases.
The regulation does not require Bailey be knowledgeable whilst a grievance has been filed towards him till formal research starts offevolved, Christopher Bredt argued.
“RECO acted in desirable religion in a complex be counted,” the board’s legal professional stated.
Even in a criminal investigation, investigators automatically accumulate statistics earlier than disclosing something to an accused, Bredt said.
Complaints approximately equity all through that process can best be handled in a judicial listening to, he added.
Both the general public and those who filed court cases have a right to hear the evidence towards the booking, he stated.
Maureen St. Denis, the Waterloo domestic owner who Bailey “attempted to silence” with a felony launch letter required to kill the non-public sale, has a right to inform her aspect of factors, he stated.
“There’s no foundation to live this intending. To the contrary, these are very extreme allegations and they deserve a public hearing,” Bredt stated.
“Mrs. St. Denis must now not be silenced. She should be allowed to tell the panel how she turned into treated by Mr. Bailey.”
He is of the same opinion RECO did deal with the complaints in opposition to Bailey otherwise because he turned into a board member — however, this is due to the fact they desired to be certain there has been substance to the allegation before launching a formal investigation, Bredt stated.
