In the spring of 2017, Monique Plamondon was at the hospital when she signed a brokerage contract for the sale of his house. Contract that it wanted to cancel a few days later.
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November 21, 2018
Updated on November 22, 2018 at 7h31
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A brokerage contract on his hospital bed
Elizabeth Fleury
The Sun
First woman officer in Quebec, prolific writer on many times published, a member of the Order of Canada in 1983 for his contribution to the well-being of his fellow citizens in a variety of fields, Monique Plamondon, 86 years old today, must lead a battle against the company Remax 1st Choice. The real estate agency requested the payment of a fee of $ 23,000 for the sale of his property, although she has quickly and clearly demonstrated its desire to terminate the brokerage contract, signed while she was hospitalized at the Hospital of the Holy-Sacrament, “in intense pain and on medication”.
Monique Plamondon is struggling with health problems related to his age and diabetes. In the spring of 2017, she was admitted to the Hospital of the Holy Sacrament, where she stayed for many weeks. During her long hospitalization, she realized that she could no longer continue to live alone in his large house of 11 parts of Murray street, in the Montcalm district.
In the past few months, Monique Plamondon, a widow, and without children, could count on the precious help of a friend-volunteer, Jean Bergeron, an octogenarian that she knew for a long time and who was helping him in his movements. It is he who put her in touch with the real estate agent Serge Pineault, Remax 1st Choice. “He [Bergeron] did not want me to go back to the house. I had to take the decision to sell it, so that I was in a hospital, weak, diseased, unwell. I had the impression that this crowded, so that it was not in the emergency,” said Ms. Plamondon, who is said to have lost all confidence in his friend.
Contacted by The Sun, Jean Bergeron defended, to have put some pressure on Ms. Plamondon. “She told me that she wanted to sell. I was okay with the idea that she wanted to sell [because of his status], but I did not put any pressure. I had no interest and have no more now”, has hammered Mr. Bergeron, claiming to have been “a help” in this case.
It is still the case that the real estate agent Serge Pineault went to the hospital on June 1, 2017 with a brokerage contract is signed with the octogenarian. This contract for a period of one year, that The Sun was able to consult, to fix the selling price of the home of Mrs. Plamondon 419 000 $ and provides a remuneration to the agency or the broker representing the “6% of the price fixed for the sale” of the house.
Regrets
Monique Plamondon would have quickly regretted having signed. She spoke to one of its smaller cousins, the lawyer, and a sociologist retired from the University of Montreal Louis Plamondon, known in particular for his involvement in the Association québécoise de défense des droits des personnes retraitées et préretraitées (AQDR).
The hospital room of his little cousin, and with his agreement, Mr. Plamondon has sent an email to Serge Pineault on June 5, 2017. “At the request of Madame Monique Plamondon, I can inform you that it is terminating the brokerage contract for his residence […] signed on Friday 2 June 2017, while Monique was in the hospital, in severe pain, without having had the opportunity to consult a close on the terms and conditions of the contract”, one can read in this email of termination has been sent within the time limits prescribed by the Law on real estate brokerage.
Later, Louis Plamondon was contacted by Serge Pineault. “He wanted me to sign a paper to confirm the termination, from what I’ve understood. But what he made me sign the [6 June], rather it is a document setting out-of-market [which means that the house is withdrawn temporarily from the market, but that the brokerage contract is still on the run]. In my head […], the contract was terminated, and we could not amend a contract is terminated,” explains Louis Plamondon to justify his signing.
Mr. Plamondon said they received no indication that the real estate agent in challenging such termination. “For me, the e-mail of termination, plus the telephone conversation she had with Mr. Pineault [to his intentions], it was amply sufficient in the context of a hospital,” he said.
Always “convinced” that the brokerage contract was terminated, Louis Plamondon and his brother Robert have sold without the intermediary of a contractor that Robert knew the house of Monique, which had to be emptied of its multiple books and memories, and that required extensive work. The transaction took place on June 12 in the amount of $ 250,000.
Notice
A formal notice was sent on 16 August by Remax 1st Choice, Monique Plamondon. The attorneys of the real estate agency write that “the June 5, 2017, […] Mr. Louis Plamondon, a member of your family, has contacted the broker Pineault mentioning to be your agent and want to terminate the brokerage contract at your request”. “June 6, 2017, after discussions with the dealer, Pineault, a form of which amendments has been concluded in order to maintain the brokerage contract and instead to temporarily remove the property off the market”, they add.
Always according to the counsel of Remax 1st Choice, the “preliminary steps” to the sale of the house “have been made before the expiry of the brokerage contract, including the first contact with the buyer, the conclusion of an agreement under private seal and to level [sic] of mortgage financing”.
Prosecutors believe that Ms. Plamondon has breached its obligations not to offer his property for sale without the intermediary of the broker Pineault during the term of the brokerage contract. “Our client is therefore entitled to claim the compensation provided for in the brokerage contract, or 6% of the sale price [419 000 $], in the amount of 25 for $ 140,” write the lawyers of Remax 1st Choice. A further 23 for $ 140 has finally been filed with the Court of Quebec in September.
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STUBBORNNESS “INCOMPREHENSIBLE”
“I do not understand this stubbornness on the part of Remax 1st Choice. Monique was 86 years old, she was in the hospital, sick, when she signed, and she changed her mind. It drags in court for that? So let’s see!”
For Louis Plamondon, this stubbornness of Remax 1st Choice, and the broker-dealer Serge Pineault, “this is really the exploitation of the elderly.”
So much so that the commission of 6 % is claimed on the sale price requested by the broker (419 000 $), and not on the actual sale price of the property (250 000 $), note to Mr. Plamondon. “With a claim of $ 15 000 [6 % of $ 250,000], Monique would have been able to go and defend himself without a lawyer to small claims…” says the lawyer.
During our interview with Monique Plamondon, the us has several times mentioned that he had the impression of sign “in the emergency, an emergency that was not of me.” “It is the urgency that has me confused. It went too fast. […] I was all alone…” has entrusted the octogenarian, who now lives in a seniors ‘ residence.
Neither the broker Serge Pineault nor the direction of Remax 1st Choice did not want to answer our questions.
“As it is a folder that is currently before the Court, our client RE/MAX 1st Choice, its officers, its employees and its dealers make no representations, in order to let the course of justice settle the dispute between the parties”, we wrote Me Camille Tremblay Dumais, who has been mandated by the real estate agency to respond to calls and emails from the Sun.
The family of Monique Plamondon has submitted the case to the Organisme d’autoréglementation du courtage immobilier du Québec (OACIQ), which does not comment on “specific cases” and that we cannot confirm whether an investigation is open or not, said the spokesman, Maude Bujold-Bolduc.
Ms. Bujold-Bolduc explained that the mission of the organization is to “protect the public” by referring to the real estate brokerage Act, which provides for several duties and obligations that the broker must respect, including those of loyalty to the client, information, transparency, and integrity.
“The broker-dealer must, in particular, demonstrate the accuracy of the information provided and ensure understanding of the information by the client. […] He knows his ethics, and it must be applied with the greatest judgment,” said the spokesman of the OACIQ.
