Community Chat

[Greeneyedlady21]

She obviously would have been much better off leaving the bedding where it was. It's a house lived in by people - reminds me of real estate agents who do things like taking toilet paper out of bathrooms.

People Magazine

A real estate agent in Sydney Australia has been taken to court after she accidentally caused a fire in an open house property.

Real estate agent Julie Bundock allegedly burned down a house as she was preparing to show it to potential buyers in May 2019. The home is estimated to be worth just under $2 million and her employer, Domain Residential Northern Beaches, is now being ordered to pay more than $554,400 (USD) in damages.

A Sydney real estate agent was taken to court after accidentally burning down a four-bedroom house. PHOTO: 

FIRE AND RESCUE NSW STATION 006 MONA VALE/FACEBOOK

According to (Australian news site I deleted), Bundock had been preparing for an open house at property owner Peter Alan Bush's four-bedroom home on Riverview Road in Avalon Beach, when she spotted that the current renters had left some bedding out on the deck to dry.

Per the outlet, Bundock threw the sheets onto a shelf below before turning on a light above them. The sheets ended up catching fire due to the heat from the light.

Bush's home and its contents were destroyed in the blaze, leading to the property owner and the four people renting the home at the time taking Bundock to court.

On Tuesday, Bush claimed in court that Bundock told him, "Oh my God Pete, I think I have burnt down your house." He also asserted that his de facto partner, Lynne Emanuel, was present when she said it.

“I had been doing some tidying up. I collected some sheets drying on the veranda and threw them on top of a freestanding metal shelving in the bedroom under the stairs. I just threw them there Pete, right up against the light on the wall. I think that’s what started the fire,” Bundock allegedly told the owner, according to the outlet.

According to the news site, Chief Judge in Equity Justice David Hammerschlag ruled that Bundock “actively created the risk of fire and the consequent harm," and ordered Domain Residential Northern Beaches to pay Bush an estimated $483,210.

The agency was also ordered to pay a combined amount of around $79,244 to the four renters who lost their belongings in the fire. The company was then told by the judge to pay the combined interest on the total amount of approximately $562,527, which has accrued from the time of the incident in May 2019.

[Mz iMac]

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@Greeneyedlady21 wrote:

The home is estimated to be worth just under $2 million and her employer, Domain Residential Northern Beaches, is now being ordered to pay more than $554,400 (USD) in damages.

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@Greeneyedlady21   The real estate agent & company got off easy.  If that had of happened in the USofA court system, the owners & renters would have been awarded a total of $30 million in punitive damages.  After the high fives & hugging each other, they would agree to split 50/50. 

[LadybugDG]

😧😧😧

[SandySparkles]

Oh my goodness!!😲 She has to feel terrible about what she did!! It is such a blessing that no one was home!! I feel awful for the residents of the home who were displaced because of her carelessness!👍👍 Hopefully, this finally brings some sense of closure for them.🤞🤞

~~~All we need is LOVE

[Etoile308]

I think the article is a cautionary tale. It's not unusual for a home fire to be caused by a light left on in a closed closet.

[Carmie]

When I was working as a Realtor, I never touched a homeowners stuff.  Why would I?

Yes, Sometimes things were a little out of order, but buyers never seemed to mind.  I never lost a sale over something being out of place.

This was an expensive lesson.

[SaveTheTurtles]

YES! I read this yesterday, can you imagine?  UGH......

[Beammeupscotty]

@Etoile308 

Oh my.  I did not know that closet lights were a fire hazard.  Thanks for the heads up. 

[Venezia]

Anything that produces heat in an enclosed area is a fire hazard.

But I'm puzzled - if the property that was destroyed was worth $2 million, why have they only had to pay around $500,000?

What about the rest of the value of the property?  Are they expecting the homeowner's insurance to pick up the tab for that?  Something isn't right.

[laluzdelmundo]

What a seriously devastating event for all involved. 

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Anyone ever smell cotton being ironed by a too hot iron? My experience with a halogen bulb in a bedside light was a wake up call for getting rid of halogen bulbs. A cat knocked a lamp with one over and it touched a pillow. I could smell that almost burning  cotton smell from another room and went in to my bedroom just in time. I believe in a minute or two more, the cotton pillow case would have caught fire. No more halogen bulbs for me. I replaced the h-bulb with an LED and put strips of rug gripper tape on the bottom of the lamp to secure it to the night stand.