Unethical Real Estate agent?

[GregSr]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California
Several years ago my father (78 years old) re-married. His new wife happens to be a Real Estate agent.

My father and I have been working out a small disagreement over a loan he gave my son (his grandson). My son has not been able to make his payments to his grandfather. My father thinks I should pay off my son's loan. I told him I don't have the funds right now.

His wife apparently dug into our mortgage history and "discovered" that my wife and I pulled some cash out of our house during a re-finance. My father is mad because he thinks we should have paid him off with some of the proceeds from the re-financing.

My father knew ALL the details of our re-financing. When I questioned where he got such detailed information, he simply replied that he did NOT find it in the public records.

I know my father's wife is eager to utilize her Real Estate license for such detective work. A few weeks ago she offered my sister some mortgage information on my sister's daughter (my niece).

Here's my question: Did my father's wife violate any legal or ethical standards by using her license and/or knowledge of Real Estate to gain specific detailed information on property that she is not involved with?

 

[presutin]

Not really. Real Estate Agents are granted a great deal of information about properties (with the exclusion of personal information) with the purpose of collecting and providing accurate and up-to-date information for themselves and for their clients. The fact that she researched the info and shared it with your father is not a crime. How your dad is sharing and using that information, that is questionable.

 

[dee_dub]

The California Department of Real Estate has a complaint process here: http://www.dre.ca.gov/pdf_docs/forms/re519a.pdf

However, their investigations are limited to allegations that an agent broke the Real Estate Law, i.e. misled/defrauded consumers. Based on my cursory reading of the Real Estate Law, misuse of information doesn't appear to be a violation of the law that could ground a complaint. A local attorney would be able to give you a more complete answer.

What she did doesn't even look like it violates the National Association Of Realtors' Code of Ethics. Man, they'll let realtors get away with anything.

If statute and ethical code don't work, there's always contract. I would be very curious under what auspices she gained access to your and your neice's financial information. I would not be surprised if her access to that information was governed by some contract requiring it to be held in confidence, and that she had breached the agreement by spreading the information around. But I'm just speculating here.