Estate agents - ERA sued and loses

The hottest news relating to professionals now is the recent case concerning the big real estate agency ERA Realty Network. Although this was not a case of professional negligence, the trial judge, Justice Choo Han Teck, found the agency guilty of misconduct.

Briefly, the plaintiffs in this case, were owners of an apartment who asked an ERA agent Ang Teik Soon (also known as Jeremy) to find a buyer for their apartment. Instead of trying to get the best price possible for his clients, Jeremy collaborated with his boss, Mitul Ratilal Parikh, known as “Mike, to buy the apartment using Mike's wife's name Natassha Sadiq . After the deal was done, Jeremy and Mike arranged to sell the apartment to an innocent purchaser at a profit of about $250,000.

The plaintiffs, who did quite a lot of detective work managed to dig out this information and won their case when the court ordered ERA to pay the profits made by Mike and Jeremy to the plaintiffs.