Property agent fined $200,000

Ricacorp Properties has been fined $200,000 by the Estate Agents Authority after one of its Taikoo Shing managers erroneously advertised a property for sale in a newspaper in 2004 without first checking with the owner to see if all the necessary paperwork had been signed.

Details of the property concerned were not divulged, but the Estate Agents Authority discovered the case through a random check conducted on advertisements.

The manager concerned admitted the error. The maximum fine is $300,000.

Ricacorp managing director Ivan Ho Shiu-cheong said the company had implemented tighter internal control measures, including asking the managers concerned and their immediate supervisors to sign off on the properties before proceeding to an advertisement. The manager, who will bear $40,000 of the fine, was also reprimanded.

'To my knowledge, there were no buyers complaining about the property,' Mr Ho said. The property is in Taikoo Shing.

The manager, who pleaded guilty to the Estate Agents Authority, has been working for the firm for almost four years.