BC Financial Services Authority has cancelled the real estate trading services licences of Wendy Mills and Wendy Mills Personal Real Estate Corporation and issued a $110,000 discipline penalty for professional misconduct, deceptive dealing, wrongful taking, and conduct unbecoming.
In a news release, the BCFSA said the disciplinary measures resulted from Mills breaching her duties to a client and providing services other than on behalf of the brokerage where she was licensed.
Mills and her Personal Real Estate Corporation are subject to the following disciplinary measures for committing professional misconduct and conduct unbecoming:
Effective July 18, 2024, both licences are cancelled;
Jointly and severally liable to pay a $110,000 discipline penalty; and
Jointly and severally liable to pay $5,000 in enforcement expenses.
The misconduct occurred between 2018 and 2020 when Mills approached a former client she had represented in a real estate sale in Vancouver with an opportunity to purchase, renovate, and sell a property together. Mills received $60,000 from the client under this agreement and promised a $20,000 return on investment for $80,000.
Mills initially inquired about the property but did not purchase it, partly due to extraordinary personal and family stresses. Despite that, she falsely represented to her client that she had bought, renovated, and sold the property for a profit. She paid $20,000 to the client in the summer and fall of 2018.
When the client asked for the $60,000 principal back, Mills pitched an agreement to roll the $60,000 into purchasing and renovating a second property with another $20,000 in promised profit. Again, Mills misrepresented to the client that she had bought and renovated the second property when she had not and had taken no steps to do so.
Following a series of requests for payment and the commencement of a lawsuit by the client, Mills paid her client back $70,500 of the $80,000 promised – composed of the $60,000 initial investment and $20,000 in promised profit on the second property.
Mills did not inform her brokerage of the real estate services she was providing, including the written agreements she entered into with the client for each property, and did not deliver the client’s funds to her brokerage, as required.
BCFSA said it holds real estate licensees to high standards and does not tolerate dishonesty and deception, even where licensees are tempted or pressured by personal circumstances. “The disciplinary measures reflect the licensee’s failure to meet core responsibilities,” the agency said.
