SINGAPORE — A property agent was handed a S$27,000 fine and 10-month suspension on Monday (Dec 23) for altering documents to get more than S$55,000 in additional fees — up to seven times more than he would have otherwise received.

The Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) said in a press statement that George Peh Meng Woon of KF Property Network had on three occasions — with former company DTZ property network (DTZ) — altered formal documents to obtain a total of S$64,664.09. 

Between Dec 2013 and May 2014, three tenants had individually engaged the 45-year-old agent to help them source for suitable properties to lease. He brought the clients to view properties, and upon agreeing to lease them, the clients agreed to pay him commission fees.

At the same time, Peh had asked three property agents — who represented each of the respective properties’ landlords — to co-broke the three transactions with him, to which they agreed. 

Co-broking refers to a situation when two or more property agents representing both the buyer and seller are involved in the same property transaction. A property agent cannot simultaneously co-broke and obtain commission fees directly from clients. 

Peh, however, did not tell his co-brokers, nor his former company, that he would be pocketing the commission fees from his own clients while proceeding to co-broke as well. 

Instead, he altered three official commission documents and changed them to “Property Management Agreements” without his former companies’ knowledge. In these agreements, he described the wrongful commissions as “property management fees” for services rendered in relation to the lease of the properties. 

In all, Peh received S$55,879 from the “property management fees” as well as S$8,785.09 from the landlords whom which he had co-broking arrangements. 

“Peh only declared his co-broking fees to his property agency DTZ, but did not declare the sums received from his clients, thereby failing to act honestly towards DTZ in the conduct of estate agency work,” said CEA. 

He pleaded guilty to three charges under CEA’s Code of Ethics and Professional Client Care, and was handed his sentence by the council’s disciplinary committee. 

The council also advised consumers to “note that (property) agents can only represent one party in a single transaction — for example either the landlord or the tenant — and not both parties”.  

The agents cannot collect commissions from two parties in that same transaction, and this applies to both sale and purchase transactions.

Should consumers suspect their property agent to be unprofessional and unethical in property transactions, they may report it to CEA at 1800-6432555 or feedback [at] cea.gov.sg (feedback[at]cea[dot]gov[dot]sg).