Cambridge realtor DaCosta to fight to regain licence Jeff Hicks, Waterloo Region Record August 29, 2013 Kelly

DaCosta will fight to regain his revoked real estate licence. A tribunal of the Real Estate Council of Ontario last week upheld a ruling stripping the well-known Waterloo Region agent of his papers, citing "serious" professional misconduct after an investigation into the 2008 sale of three Cambridge properties. Kitchener lawyer James Marentette, who represents DaCosta, promises a battle in court. "Mr. DaCosta will appeal the decision to the Divisional Court," Marentette said Tuesday in an email to The Record. "We have 30 days." DaCosta has a month from the Aug. 15 decision to do so. Once an appeal is filed, he can apply to the council's tribunal for a stay of his revocation. If a stay is granted, DaCosta may resume trading until the appeal is heard. "The mandate of the registrar, and therefore the tribunal, is not to impose punishment but to determine if past events show that the registrant is not likely to practise in the future with integrity," Marentette said in a statement. "We continue to argue that the five years which have passed and the hundreds of transactions with satisfied clients that Mr. DaCosta has conducted with integrity since the events involved in this case show that there need be no concern about his future conduct." Meanwhile, the Waterloo Region real estate industry watches intently. "It's a high-profile situation," said Stan Adams, president of the Cambridge Association of Realtors. "They're appealing the ruling. Where it goes from here, I don't know." The DaCosta Group, which is DaCosta's sales team, works out of the Re/Max Real Estate Centre on Hespeler Road. At the time of DaCosta's alleged 2008 misconduct, DaCosta was with Re/Max Twin City Realty. The Record unsuccessfully sought comment from DaCosta and his wife Cindy, vice-president of The DaCosta Group, this week. The Real Estate Council of Ontario, which oversees regulations of the real estate industry in Ontario, also declined to elaborate further on the case against DaCosta. "We cannot comment on Mr. DaCosta's case because the matter is still in the appeal period," council registrar Joseph Richer said in an email response to The Record.

The tribunal ruling against DaCosta found, through a numbered corporation, he made a profit of $76,778.93 on the flip sale of a Lowell Street property. According to the ruling, he initially listed the property for clients at $129,000 on Sept. 23, 2008. On Oct. 2, he bought the property from the clients for $97,000, the tribunal said. The deal was completed at 8 p.m., according to records cited by the tribunal. However, seven hours earlier, he had already agreed to sell the same property, which his corporation did not yet own, for $175,000. According to the tribunal, the original clients were not told a purchaser was willing to pay $78,000 more than DaCosta would pay. The tribunal found DaCosta also profited $38,922.10 in the sale of a property on Beverly Street. A client listed the Beverly property for sale with DaCosta for $159,000 under a "guaranteed sale program," said the tribunal. That program promises the realtor will purchase the property himself if it does not sell. After it failed to sell following reductions in the list price, the property was transferred to DaCosta's company for $143,000 on March 28, 2008, the tribunal determined. However, the tribunal found DaCosta had already agreed to sell the property to another client for $179,000 on Feb. 18 while the original listing should have been active. But the listing had been cancelled 45 days early by DaCosta, the ruling said, without specific notice to the client or the client's authorization. The purchaser, according to the tribunal, defaulted on his mortgage on the property the following October. The bank involved couldn't sell the property, but transferred it to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. Under power of sale, it sold for $114,000 the next February. The third property, on Hewat Street, was judged by the tribunal to have an inflated sale price so the purchaser could obtain a higher mortgage amount from a lender. Last year, six real estate licences were revoked by the provincial real estate council. In 2011, there were nine. In 2010, there were 13. "That speaks to the industry's efforts to educate registrants and consumers about their rights and responsibilities," Richer said. The DaCosta Group says it works with 300 buyers at any given time. An email sent out by The DaCosta Group last Friday blamed professional jealousy for the investigation into two of DaCosta's dealings beginning with an anonymous complaint in March 2008. A third transaction also came to the council's attention. "Regrettably there is some nastiness that comes from competitors when you're at the top of your industry," said the email, which had the names of the DaCostas and 11 other DaCosta Group staffers attached to it.

"The bigger and more successful you are, the bigger the target on your back for your competitors to take aim." The tribunal's ruling allows DaCosta to reapply for registration after time "apart from the industry", when his suitability will be reassessed by the registrar. In 2001, the council's discipline committee fined DaCosta $5,000 for violating its code of ethics. DaCosta was found negligent in the manner in which he retained and stored client information, leaving them vulnerable to fraud. Through a spokesperson, the Kitchener-Waterloo Association of Realtors declined comment on DaCosta's licence revocation. DaCosta, who was first licensed in 1989, has been a member on the Kitchener-Waterloo board. Right now, he has no status at the Cambridge Association of Realtors. "No licence, no membership," Adams said. "Basically, at this point, he's a member of the public." But an appeal could lead to a stay and change everything. "If it goes to an appeal, which I understand that's what's happening, the jury is still out," Adams said.