I have encountered repeated water leaks from the upstairs suite 800 from 2009 to 2019. Realtor Chan who helped the absentee owner Youti Wan find tenants refused to provide Wan's information to the strata management and refused to repair the sources of the leaks in her controlled suite.

In 2011, I filed a complaint against Realtor Chan with the Real Estate Council of British Columbia alleging that Chan was managing a rental property and the poor management was causing repeated water damages to my entire suite.

The Real Estate Council fined Realtor Chan $1250 and ordered her to complete the remedial education course at Sauder School of UBC for her misconduct. Realtor Chan did not have a property manager license but she was listed with the strata management as the contact person, paid monthly strata fees and dealt with a water leak problem on behalf of the owner.   (File #11-201)

After Realtor Chan signed the Consent Order with the Real Estate Council, her wrongdoings became worse. Chan did not cease her activities as a de facto property manager for her 2 clients' in the building and continuously represented these 2 owners attending Annual General Meeting by forging the owners' signatures on her fraudulent proxies. Moreover, my assistant and I discovered Realtor Chan has committed dishonest and fraudulent activities as follows:

1. Realtor Chan created a false MLS record with the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver where she acted as the dual real estate agent for seller and buyer and sold a suite downstairs from my own on December 6, 2009, at $1.68 million while the overseas owner was in fact not changed.

2. Two years later, Realtor Chan’s sister Teresa became the new owner of my downstairs suite. The transfer document e-filed with Land Title Office was a claim of a $1.5 million cash sale on December 17, 2011 (Land Title and Survey Authority (LTSA) of BC registration document CA2322998). Unbelievably the property was sold to Teresa by a non-existent Notary Public representing the overseas owner.

3. Realtor Chan also sold my downstairs owner's single house in Vancouver west side to her sister Teresa for $1.55 million on January 20, 2011 (LTSA registration BB1932104). Teresa then sold this property to a third party for $2.928 million on May 7, 2012 (LTSA registration CA2532959). Teresa profited $1.378 million after holding the property for one year and need not pay capital gains tax if she claimed this property was her primary residence.

(For reasons unknown, Realtor Chan's counsel suddenly added my downstairs owner as one of the defendants in her Case Plan Proposal filed to the Supreme Court of B.C. on May 29, 2014. However, I never sued my downstairs owner.)

 4. On December 24, 2013, my upstairs suite was transferred to Realtor Chan’s son Allister for $1.00 consideration but e-filed with the Land Title Office on April 7, 2014, the next day after the owner Youti Wan passed away (LTSA registration CA3667124). The notary public’s electronic signature on Form A (title transfer) was a non-standard electronic signature and different from the notary public’s registered signature on Form F (certificate of non-owing Payment to Strata management).

 

5. On April 15, 2017, Realtor Chan’s son Allister had Realtor Chan and her husband place a fake $6.8 million mortgage lien on the same property (LTSA registration CA5944298). Once again, the notary public's electronic signature on mortgage registration Form B was different from the BC notary publics' electronic signature style.

I filed another complaint together with a binder of evidence to the Real Estate Council of British Columbia. Unfortunately, I was informed that there was insufficient evidence to support a finding of Realtor Chan's unprofessional conduct and my complaint file was closed.

I could not accept the conclusion of the Real Estate Council's investigation, so I filed a Notice of Civil Claim for neglecting duty by failing to regulate Realtor Chan and not conducting a reasonably competent investigation into Chan’s engagement in repeated water leakage and title fraud. (Supreme Court of British Columbia, Vancouver Registry S1911230)

After discovering my downstairs suite was illegally transferred to Realtor Chan's sister Teresa, my assistant and I went to Land Title Office in person to ask why a non-existent notary public could represent an overseas owner to sell her condo to a realtor's sister. I also brought up the possibility of forgery as the notary public's electronic signatures on Form A and Form F documents for Realtor Chan's son's acquiring deceased owner's suite at $1.00 were two completely different electronic signatures. Unfortunately, my complaint to the Land Title Office regarding Realtor Chan and her family's fraudulent conveyance was not received with any concern. The response I received was that the e-filing was verified by its registrar; furthermore, Land Title Authority has an error and omission insurance fund to compensate the victimized owners. However, title fraud victims must win a lawsuit against the fraudsters before they can receive the compensation fund.

I filed a complaint to the Notary Public Association but was informed that without the client's consent, the association would not disclose any information. However, fraudsters would certainly not allow the notary public to release information regarding their fraudulent activities so this policy is protecting the fraudsters.

My suite was further damaged by repeated leaks originating in suite 800, therefore, I had no choice but to take legal action against Realtor Chan and the absentee owner Youti Wan. However, my pursuit of justice became an 8-year long battle against fraudsters and unprofessional lawyers. Counsels, including my then counsels, were aware of fraud but choose to accept or cover it up instead. My then counsels billed me unreasonable legal fees and pressured me to consent to Realtor Chan's sister Teresa to be the estate executor of the deceased owner when I know she is not.

I filed complaints against opposing counsels and against the lawyer who helped Realtor Chan and her sibling Teresa file fake probate to the Law Society of British Columbia. Same as the above-mentioned professional societies, I encountered red-tape. The Law Society informed me that the lawyers that I complained about did not conduct any violations of their regulations.

The lawyer JM who claims to represent the deceased owner Youti Wan provided me with Teresa as the owner's only daughter and estate executor. I know this claim is false because I know Realtor Chan's family background. Teresa is in fact, Chan's second sister. Lawyer JM has been forcing me to amend the deceased defendant Wan to Teresa since 2014. The Law Society informed me "there was no obligation upon [JM] to investigate whether Teresa was, in fact, Youti Wan's daughter". Is the Law Society stating that if we find a lawyer that will claim us as someone else's bogus daughter and estate heir, we could steal the deceased owner's estate and become the legal estate executor?

The Law Society also informed me that the lawyer DS who filed the fake probate for Realtor Chan and Teresa doesn't have the obligation to ensure that Chan and Teresa are in fact Youti Wan's children and the validity of the will. The Law Society is telling us that fraudsters can use a copied and fraudulent will to file probate when she can hire a lawyer who doesn't care about the relationship between the fraudster and the deceased owner. The deceased owner's signature on the copied will was in Chinese and the notary public's signature was proved to be forged. Lawyer DS did not have an obligation to ensure the Chinese name was in fact the same person as the English name!

Regarding Realtor Chan's committing perjury, the Law Society responded:  "by witnessing the affidavit's signature, the lawyer is not guaranteeing the truth of the evidence in the affidavit". The law society is telling us that if we can find a lawyer to witness our affidavit, we can make a false statement into the truth.

In my complaint statement, I provided my evidence that I met the probate lawyer DS together with a friend (as a witness)  and the lawyer was aware of Realtor Chan's fraud including her relationship with the deceased owner as Chan had filed a prior affidavit that her relationship with the deceased owner Wan was of close friends. The probate lawyer assisted Chan in making another affidavit stating that the deceased relationship was that of mother/father and daughter. In the first paragraph, the affidavit stated that the deceased was her father, and then in the fourth paragraph that the deceased was her mother. The law society stated that it was a simple "clerical error" but the deceased owner's gender has been changed from male to female after he was announced to have passed away. I believe realtor Chan forgot to adjust the deceased's gender

The only evidence that she has provided that Teresa is Youti Wan's daughter is that Teresa broke down in tears in front of her. In other words, evidence of Teresa's familial relationship with Youti Wan is her tears. According to the law societies, lawyers don't have any obligations to ensure the validity of their evidence. Thus, anyone can create a fraudulent last will and commit perjury regarding their relationship with a deceased owner if they can find an unscrupulous lawyer who will help her or him file a fake probate application.

The Code of Professional Conduct for British Columbia 3.2-7 states: “A lawyer must not engage in any activity that the lawyer knows or ought to know assists in or encourages any dishonesty, crime or fraud.”

 

Also the Appendix A – Affidavits, Solemn Declarations, and Officer Certifications – annotated states:

"Affidavits and solemn declarations

1.  A lawyer must not swear an affidavit or take a solemn declaration unless the deponent:

 (c)     understands or appears to understand the statement contained in the document,

(d)     in the case of an affidavit, swears, declares or affirms that the contents of the document are true,

(e)     in the case of a solemn declaration, orally states that the deponent makes the solemn declaration conscientiously believing it to be true and knowing that it is of the same legal force and effect as if made under oath [...]

The Law Society is telling us lawyers need not comply with the Code of Professional Conduct for British Columbia.

On Feb. 27, 2017, the probate lawyer DS even filed his affidavit and swore that "I am the lawyer for the applicant, in the within proceedings, and as such have personal knowledge of the facts and matters hereinafter deposed to, save and except where stated to be based upon information and belief, and where so stated, I verily believe them to be true." In probate application documents, the Realtor and her 4 siblings all become Wan's daughters, and the lawyer who swore that the mother-daughter relationship is true had knowledge of the fact that the Realtor had previously sworn an affidavit claiming that Wan was just a friend.
When lawyers "knowingly" assist others in a lie and the penalty of perjury does not matter to the affiants, how can the Law Society protect the rightful owners of the property, and have the fraudsters be investigated and prosecuted?

In Canada, the professional authorities are a self-regulated professional society. Notary publics, lawyers, and realtors receive working license from and pay membership fees to their societies so how can we expect their governing organizations to conduct proper investigations on illegal activities within their own members? There is a conflict of interest as the governing organizations rely on the membership fees for continued operation. Unscrupulous professionals can take advantage of their authority to damage public interests without any real consequences.

There needs to be a change.

As it stands, Canada's self-regulating system is not effective enough to protect homeowners and their beneficiaries. In the U.S., every state has a Division of Licensing Service, and people can file complaints against the unprofessional professionals. (e.g. https://www.dos.ny.gov/licensing/complaint_links.html ) Each Canadian province should, like the U.S., have its own Division of Licensing Services in order to detect and conduct proper investigations into real estate and estate fraud. We must protect the public interest of the people in Canada.