Consent Order

Published on
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Licensee
Craig (Steven) Lau
Brokerage at Time of Sanctioned Activity
Current Brokerage
Macdonald Realty Westmar, Richmond
Consent Order Date
20 May 2021

Summary

A discipline committee of the Real Estate Council of British Columbia (the “Council”) did not accept the Consent Order Proposal submitted by Craig Steven Lau on February 23, 2021. On May 20, 2021 a revised proposal was accepted by the Council, and the Council found that Mr. Lau committed professional misconduct when he:

  1. with respect to contracts of purchase and sale
    1. dated March 27, 2017 for the Wxxxxx property;
    2. dated April 21, 2017 for the Exxxxxxxx property; and
    3. dated October 10, 2017 for the Wxxxxxx property:
  2. entered into an arrangement with the agent for the sellers on each of the contracts, Mr. Xxxxx, as set out in paragraphs (3) to (5) below, so that one or both of them could obtain remuneration to which they were not entitled;
  3. allowed himself to be identified as the buyers' agent in the contracts and related documents when in fact he did not provide real estate services to the buyers, thereby making an intentional misrepresentation of a material fact;
  4. caused his brokerage to enter a fee agreement with each seller based on the false representation that he was the buyers' agent, and when he had agreed with Mr. Xxxxx that he would provide a portion of the remuneration he received in connection with the transaction to him; and
  5. provided the contracts and fee agreements to his brokerage when he knew that they were based upon the false representation that he was the buyers' agent, thereby causing his brokerage to pay commissions as though those documents were genuine.

Results

A discipline committee of the Council has ordered, and Craig Steven Lau has agreed to, the following penalties:

  1. a suspension of 6 months (from July 7, 2021, to January 7, 2022, inclusive);
  2. prohibited from acting as an unlicenced assistant during licence suspension period;
  3. enhanced supervision by managing broker for 12 months following end of suspension;
  4. a discipline penalty of $5,000;
  5. an additional discipline penalty of $11,268;
  6. enforcement expenses of $1,500; and
  7. registration and successful completion of the REIC2600 Ethics in Business Practice course.

Contraventions

  • Real Estate Services Act
    • 35(1)(a) & (c) [Misconduct by licensee]
      Read More
    • 35(2) [Misconduct by licensee]
      Read More
  • Real Estate Rules

PDF Files

Consent Order

Full consent order is available as a PDF.

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