'Demoralizing': Arson allegations, bogus offers put Quebec real estate brokers in bad light

Recent headlines, including one about alleged arson attacks, have rocked the real estate world in Quebec, but brokers are reminding buyers and sellers to put those stories into perspective.

On Thursday, the founder of Sutton Quebec, Christophe Folla, appeared in court to formally face charges of conspiracy to commit arson and damage to property by fire or explosion in connection with alleged arsons against his competitors. Two other men are facing similar charges in connection with the alleged scheme.

Two days earlier, another two realtors from Quebec, Christine Girouard and Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin, were found guilty of submitting bogus offers on homes they were selling to create a sense of competition among legitimate buyers to drive up prices.

Jessica Brown, a broker with RE/MAX based in Lac-Brome, said in an interview that these stories hurt the image of real estate agents whose goal is to protect the public.

"For sure, it does not put real estate brokers in a good light when we hear stories like that. I try to keep in mind and reinforce that these are three people amongst thousands of real estate brokers in Quebec and, of course, we're going to hear the stories that make headlines because they're more interesting than those of us who are following the rules of law and doing things for our clients on a day-to-day basis," she said.

"But it is, to a certain degree, demoralizing."

There are more than 17,000 real estate brokers in Quebec. The governing body of real estate professionals, the OACIQ, said the two brokers who pushed fake offers could have their licences revoked or suspended, or face fines of at least $50,000 per offence. A date for a sanction hearing has not yet been announced.

The association's vice-president of supervision said Tuesday that they "greatly damaged the image and reputation of the profession as a whole."

"Consumers need to know that they can trust a real estate broker in the most important transaction of their lives," said Caroline Champagne in a press release.

In Brown's opinion, the pair should be stripped of their licences because the public has lost their trust in them.

"Nobody wants to see those kinds of people working in our profession," Brown said.

Sutton Quebec announced Wednesday it has cut ties with Folla, who founded the company in 1995. A spokesperson for management consulting firm Teneo, which is representing Sutton Québec, told CTV News that Folla is "being removed from Sutton Québec's articles of incorporation as he is no longer an administrator."

• Listen on CJAD 800 Radio: Real estate sweethearts exposed for submitting bogus offers

Sébastien Bonnerot, the vice-president of Century 21 Quebec and the owner of the Century 21 Élite office in Cantley, Que., agrees that these kinds of stories paint his peers in a negative light.

"Unfortunately, when we have a colleague or an agent that does something like this, it really shows on the entire profession," Bonnerot told CJAD 800 Radio on Thursday.

He suspects the case of Girouard and Dauphinais-Fortin to be a product of realtors coming off a COVID-19 high when realtors were used to getting multiple offers, when the seller's market was red hot.

"You may have 99.9 per cent of agents who are honest and perform their work diligently but when you have a classic example, like this, of people who were a little too ambitious, and decide to work outside the legal frame of what we're supposed to be doing, it affects everyone and it gives everyone a really bad perception about the industry," he said.

According to the OACIQ, changes have been made to the Real Estate Brokerage Act in recent years to protect the public, including a ban on double representation and verbal brokerage contracts in residential real estate transactions.

With files from CTV News Montreal's Caroline Van Vlaardingen and CJAD 800 Radio.