Misrepresentation Violations Section 10176(a)
The California Department of Real Estate receives several complaints each year and out of their list of common violations the one that stuck out like a sore thumb to me was Violations Section 10176(a) Misrepresentation. I selected misrepresentation as one of the most common claims made against real estate agents because it is easy to do and comes in several different forms. For instance, one could commit fraudulent misrepresentation, which is purposely, provide misleading information such as a lie. In many cases, agents lie out of desperation in order to close a deal. Secondly, there is negligent misrepresentation which one could easily become guilty of due to laziness and lack of care. An example of negligent misrepresentation is when an agent tells a potential buyer that the home is in a safe neighborhood based on how the neighborhood looked as opposed to researching
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Negligent misrepresentation can occur when you don’t directly lie but you fail to perform your due diligence in providing information, or you provide information without taking reasonable care to determine that the information provided is true and correct. Lastly, there is Innocent Misrepresentation, which could occur when you have the reasonable footing to believe what you said is true but the statement is in fact false. Misrepresentation could lead to lawsuits and revocation of license. It is a very serious and problematic issue for agents due to the various ways it could occur. Misrepresentation includes but isn’t limited to disclosure issues, misleading clients, breach of duty, giving legal advice and so forth. Therefore, it is essential for a broker to have a system in