The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A two-time Bahamas Real Estate Association (BREA) president is seeking legal advice on whether he can file a lawsuit that would force the organisation to become separate from the Board that regulates the industry.

Declaring himself “unimpressed” with the Association’s current leadership, Pat Strachan reiterated to Tribune Business his determination to deal with an issue he has identified before - the fact that BREA and the Real Estate Board are effectively one and the same.

Calling for BREA to represent the interests of its members and the overall industry, and the Board to be responsible for all licensing and self-regulatory matters, Mr Strachan argued that it was a “potential conflict of interest” for the two to be the same and have common members.

And, adding “fuel to the fire”, Mr Strachan told Tribune Business that the industry’s Multiple Listings System (MLS) should be owned and operated by a private entity, not BREA and the Board.

He also criticised BREA for failing to appeal the recent Supreme Court rulings that found the organisation should licence realtors wishing to operate part-time in New Providence.

Responding to the points raised by Mr Strachan, BREA’s president said that ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. Franon Wilson told Tribune Business he could understand calls for a restructuring if problems were being reported “left, right and centre”, but there had only been one “incident” with respect to licensing in BREA’s entire history.

Implying that this rendered Mr Strachan’s demands for a Board/Association split moot, Mr Wilson revealed that BREA failed to appeal the ‘licensing of part-time realtors’ ruling due to incorrect legal advice.

In the wake of Sir Michael Barnett’s initial judgment, Mr Wilson said BREA’s attorneys advised that the judgment did not require the Association to change its policy on licensing part-time realtors.

A subsequent 2010 ruling proved that advice to be incorrect, and Mr Wilson said too much time had elapsed between then and the initial 2008 judgment for BREA to mount an appeal.

But, undeterred, Mr Strachan, who runs his own firm, Pat Strachan Realty, told Tribune Business: “I’m not impressed with the leadership of BREA. I think they’re channelling their energies in the wrong direction.

“For instance, when the Chief Justice made his ruling on part-timers, I feel it should have been appealed.”

Pointing out that other senior realtors felt the same way, Mr Strachan added: “The leadership ignored it, but I felt it should have been challenged.

“The negative consequences are that you have persons walking around with part-time licences and are employed elsewhere, and they are not giving prospects their undivided attention and professional, full-time advice.

“It could give the profession a bad name. I feel persons in the business full-time will be more serious, give more attention, and attend conferences and seminars.”

Mr Strachan said he had heard “one or two unusual stories” concerning part-time Bahamian realtors, although he declined to provide specifics.

Turning to a favourite theme, he then told Tribune Business: “The Real Estate Board, and I say this formally, should be separate from BREA.

“I feel very strongly about this, and I have made an appointment with an attorney to speak with him and see what can be done; if a lawsuit has to be filed against the Attorney General’s Office or the Real Estate Board. What is the process to force the Government to separate these two entities?

“Anywhere in the world where real estate is legislated by law, the Board members are appointed by the Government,” Mr Strachan said. “The Association president and officers are elected by the members.

“It is the duty of the Association president and officers to look out for the members. It is the Real Estate Board’s duty to regulate the industry. How can the president of the Association be the chairman of the Real Estate Board? That is a potential conflict of interest, and I intent to correct it. I intend to go forward and seek legal advice on how it can be corrected.”

Still not done, Mr Strachan said: “To add more fuel to the fire, the MLS should not be part of the Real Estate Board. The MLS needs to be operated by a private entity.

“The Real Estate Board is responsible for the regulation of its members. The MLS deals with listings. It has nothing to do with the regulation and licensing, and shouldn’t be under the Real Estate Board.”

The former BREA president added that in US states such as Florida, Nevada and California, their respective MLS systems were not associated from an operational/ownership perspective with the regulator.

“It needs to be corrected, and I intend to challenge the system to see if there’s an avenue out there, a legal process to correct it. It’s a fighting process, and one has to engage the Government and relevant parties” Mr Strachan said.

Moving to dampen down Mr Strachan’s comments, Mr Wilson told Tribune Business in response: “It’s great that members are involved and care so deeply about the Association. and I think it’s great that someone of Pat Strachan’s stature, a two-time president, continues to remain active in BREA.”

On the separation of Board and Association, Mr Wilson said there was only one instance where BREA made an error in licensing a realtor. The law allowed persons aggrieved by such decisions to seek legal redress through the courts, which happened in this instance.

“It’s really only one instance where we made a mistake with this, and to say now that the entire system needs changing....... I could truly understand if there was a long list of people saying BREA had made a mistake left, right and centre,” Mr Wilson told Tribune Business.

Acknowledging that “transparency is an issue” in other professional organisations, Mr Wilson said BREA’s website left the Bahamian public and foreign investors in no doubt as to what was required to become a licensed realtor.

BREA, he added, had “a certain time” within which it could appeal he ‘part-time licence’ ruling handed down by the Chief Justice in 2008. “The fact of the matter is that BREA receive advice it did not have to appeal, as it did not have to change its policy and did not have to give a licence [as a consequence of the judgment],” Mr Wilson said.

That, though, turned out to be incorrect. The person involved in the original 2008 case then applied to the Supreme Court to have then-BREA president, William Wong, jailed for contempt of court on the grounds that the Association had failed to comply with the first judgment and issue the part-time licence.

Justice Clare Hepburn again found against BREA, although no jail time was served, a mere $4,000 fine sufficing. “I wish it was handled differently,” Mr Wilson told Tribune Business. “But that was 2008, time has run out, and it is what it is.”