PHOTO: TOM LEE/STUFF Corinna Mansell leaving the Hamilton District Court last month after her disciplinary hearing.
A top real estate agent who sold her rental property to a Waikato pensioner without disclosing it had been a ‘leaky home’ has been banned from the industry for three months and fined $2500 for disgraceful conduct.
Corinna Mansell, who was general manager of the Remax chain, admitted the charge at a Real Estate Agents Disciplinary Tribunal hearing in Hamilton last month but her lawyer Matthew Ward-Johnson had argued she shouldn’t lose her real estate licence because of her guilty plea and otherwise unblemished record. The tribunal said her behaviour was a “serious breach of acceptable standards”.
Margaret ‘Jean’ Warburton, who bought the house, is outraged at the penalty, saying it was just one per cent of her own $250,000 loss on the property. Warburton said Mansell was the “biggest winner” from a “pathetic” system.
However, the Real Estate Authority said the verdict was a triumph and sent a “clear message” in a difficult, unique case in which the REA had worried it might not be able to secure any punishment at all.
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