By Susie Nordqvist
A real estate agent has agreed to stand down from his workplace following controversy over his criminal past.
Robert Revill has a string of convictions, but won an appeal to get his real estate licence approved.
The case has prompted a warning for consumers to do their homework on whom they trust to sell their homes.
Revill, a former professional boxer, has 25 convictions for drug, firearms, driving and sex offences – including one for sex with a 15-year-old prostitute.
The Real Estate Agents Authority refused to grant him a licence last year, but he fought that decision – and won.
Homeowners and Buyers Association spokesman Roger Levie says cases like this dent customer confidence.
“There is a general perspective you can’t just pick up the phone and find and agent and feel they are going to be honest and reliable for you – I think that’s a real pity,” he says.
It comes the same week as another agent, Marnie Adams, had her licence suspended, after she sold a house without disclosing she had helped buy it.
Mr Levie says people can’t rely on the system the way they used to and even then, it can only do so much to protect them.
“Consumers in general must take a much higher degree of responsibility for the decisions they make about who they operate and work with. They need to do their due diligence.”
Revill wouldn’t speak to 3 News on camera, but the tribunal that granted him the licence says it is satisfied he is a fit and proper person to hold one. The tribunal says its function is not to punish the applicant for past conduct, but to consider how good an agent he will be in the future.
The Real Estate Institute of New Zealand says the tribunal’s focus is in the wrong place.
“My concern is that the fit and proper person test has been given precedence,” says chief executive Helen O’Sullivan. “My concern is that the priority should be given to consumer confidence in the conduct of work.”
A short time ago, Revill’s employer sent a statement to 3 News saying that after recent publicity and feedback from the public he had agreed to stand down while the firm decided what to do next.
3 News