Manitoba Securities Commission hearing pits realtor, foundation issues

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This article was published 13/07/2023 (785 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Manitoba Securities Commission is accusing a Winnipeg real estate agent of lying for not telling a condo buyer the property had foundation problems when asked.

Rahim Omar Mirza will appear before a commission hearing Aug. 23, following a multi-year investigation of the Nov. 14, 2018, purchase of the property on McMillan Avenue.

Commission staff allege Mirza committed “fraudulent acts” during a real estate transaction, including having “intentionally misrepresented a material fact by his conduct in not disclosing foundation issues to the purchaser.”

“I asked at the time if there were foundation issues, and he said no,” Amanda Kinden, the condo purchaser, said during an interview Thursday with the Free Press. “I had just gone through (foundation problems), so it was top of mind for me. I didn’t want to deal with it again.

“I was very shocked when I found out there were foundation problems.”

Kinden, who has since sold the McMillan Avenue condo and moved, said the problem meant she had to pay thousands of dollars for repairs to the former two-storey single-family home. The other condo owner, on the upper floor, paid the other half.

According to commission documents, Kinden’s half of the repair cost was $34,535.

Mirza, who responded to the Manitoba Securities Commission allegations via text, wrote: “It would obviously be inappropriate for me to comment at this stage. It would also be inappropriate and unjust to report on such a matter based on a notice, which hasn’t yet been proven.”

Mirza was awarded an individual bronze MLS award from the Winnipeg Real Estate Board in 2018, for being in the top 10 per cent of agents in the city. He is still working as a real estate agent.

According to documents filed by the commission July 10, the condo’s previous owner had hired Mirza to sell the property from July 3 to Nov. 4, 2018.

Two potential buyers made an offer to purchase July 7, with Mirza providing a disclosure statement the next day, saying the seller was not aware of any foundation problems, the commission claims.

However, after a contractor hired by the potential buyers reported problems he found with the front foundation wall, they pulled the offer.

A few months later, on Oct. 12, when Kinden and a person who had done previous renovation work for her where shown the McMillan Avenue property, she allegedly asked Mirza if there were foundation issues.

The commission alleges Mirza responded: “Not that I’m aware of.”

A few months after Kinden bought the condo and moved in, the commission said she met with the upstairs condo owner March 3, 2019. He told her there were foundation problems known before Kinden’s purchase, gave her a copy of the contractor’s report from July 2018, and copies of two emails, it said.

A June 12, 2018, email, from the upstairs condo owner, asked the lower condo’s previous owner: “Are we going to get that structural engineer to come in to look at the foundation?… I assume we do have some big structural issues, so I was thinking that should be something we do regardless of who you may sell to.”

When the previous owner replied July 13, also adding Mirza to the email chain, she wrote: “I don’t believe the structural issues are so dire that I would be sued.”

When commission investigators emailed a request to Mirza asking for details connected to structural or foundation issues, he answered Jan. 2, 2020, saying he was not aware of any pre-existing structural or foundation issues from the previous owner and made no disclosures about that to Kinden.

The commission claims because of Mirza’s “intentional material misrepresentation of this material fact” Kinden bought the condo and had to repair the foundation out of pocket.

The commission is asking for the Manitoba Real Estate Association’s reimbursement fund to refund Kinden what she paid for the foundation repair and to suspend or cancel Mirza’s registration.

A spokeswoman for the Manitoba Securities Commission said: “The commission takes real estate matters seriously and have filed a notice of hearing and statement of allegations.”

Meanwhile, Kinden launched a lawsuit in 2020, naming Mirza, the condo’s previous owner, and Royal LePage Dynamic Real Estate in the matter.

In a statement of defence filed Nov. 4, 2020, Mirza denied Kinden asked him if there were problems with the foundation and denied knowing before the sale something was wrong with the foundation.

The matter is still before the courts and the allegations have not been proven.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca