COLCO QUESTIONS

To: Bill Dick, Sales Manager, MacDonald Realtors, 
MacDonald Realty (1974) Ltd.

Re: Chelsea Southlands, 41st & Collingwood, Vancouver

Thanks for your telephone message today in response to my inquiry last week.

We are more confused than ever.

You state that you are not familiar with the details regarding the provision of warranties for new projects such as the Chelsea at Southlands.

MacDonald Realty is advertising that the project is covered by a London Guarantee Warranty.

London Guarantee reports that no warranty is in place.  This is confusing. Please clarify.

MacDonald Realty advertises: "All compliments of an award winning developer with 30 years of building excellence, recognized by the industry for quality and innovation."

You report that the developer is "158 Seabright Holdings Ltd."

We find that Seabright is not registered with the Homeowner Protection Office as a licensed residential builder.  Do you know otherwise?.

We ask for substantiation of the claim that Chelsea at Southlands is built by "an award winning developer with 30 years of building excellence, recognized by the industry for quality and innovation."  You provide no substantiation and do not identify the builder by name other than by "158 Seabright".  Are you saying that Seabright - this particular Seabright, number 158 Seabright - has thirty years of building excellence?

Our information is that the principals behind Chelsea Southlands built leaky rotten condos.  Do you deny that?

We asked you to identify the principals.  You did not do so?  Why not? Presumably your firm has entered into an agreement with the developer regarding the marketing of the project.  Are you saying that you do not know
who the developers are?

Where does the "30 years" come from?  Has 158 Seabright been developing and building for 30 years?  We think not.  Please clarify.

What does it mean when licensed real estate agents from MacDonald Realty and other firms provide such seemingly false and misleading information on behalf of developers?  Why should we trust realtors who do so?  Should we
trust MacDonald Realty? Please clarify.

What do you mean when you say that Mr. George Wong of MacDonald Realtors is handling the details regarding the marketing of Chelsea Southlands?  Is he responsible and not MacDonald Realtors?  Please clarify.

We will be publishing a paper about these matters.

We are trying hard to determine the role of Macdonald Realtors in the marketing of Chelsea Southlands, the facts regarding the warranty, and the facts regarding the developer.

Your assistance with this research project will be appreciated.

-James Balderson
Coalition of Leaky Condo Owners
www.myleakycondo.com
 

To: Ed Tsumura, Manager, Underwriting
    London Guarantee - 3rd Party Home Warranty

Re: Telephone conversation follow-up
    (1) Seasons at Ravenwoods
    (2) Chelsea at Southlands

Please confirm our conversation in which you promised to "look into" the matter I brought to your attention, i.e., that both of these projects are being advertised as having London Guarantee Home Warranty coverage without
that coverage being in place, according to inquiries to your company.

We are scheduled to publish a paper touching on this matter, among others, in the next few days.

Your verification of the facts and comments will be appreciated.

Thanks.

-James Balderson
Coalition of Leaky Condo Owners
www.myleakycondo.com
 

Jan. 8, 2001

Mr. James Balderson
Coalition of Leaky Condo Owners

 By Fax: 739-4109
 

Dear Mr. Balderson:

Re: Macdonald Realtors

Thank you for your e-mail to me on January 2, 2001. I have been in and out of the office during the past few days and thus unable to respond until now.

Although both Macdonald Realtors, as well as myself, remain willing to assist you with respect to he various inquiries contained in your e-mail, I must begin by commenting on a few points raised in your e-mail.

First, the reason that I am not familiar with the application process concerning warranties is because it is the developer’s responsibility for dealing with this issue. In particular, the developer is responsible for making any and all warranty registration arrangements. As the listing agent for the property, and consistent with industry practice, we reasonably rely upon the developer for warranty information and arrangements.

Second, in our previous telephone conversation you never once asked me to identify the principals of the developer of the subject project.  As you should recall, you only asked me to give you the name of the developer, which I did.

Third, Macdonald Realtors is always prepared to review any of its advertising in order to ensure that such advertising is entirely accurate and never misleading.  In this regard, you have made a number of references to an advertisement recently placed by Macdonald Realtors for the subject project. In order to reasonably consider your comments, would you please provide me with a copy of the advertisement to which you refer.  I will then look into your concerns and ensure that problems, if any, with the advertisement are adequately addressed.  I have been advised by Keith Williams of Glen Eagle Marketing that the advertisement previously run for this project in the Condo Guide has been discontinued for the time being.

I should also point out that I disagree with a great deal of the other allegations contained in your e-mail.. However, and rather than engage in a debate with you on each of these issues, I would ask that you contact Mr. Williams at 538-7597 who is in a better position than me to respond to your questions.  In any event, I assume that my letter clarifies any issues between Macdonald Realtors and your self and that you will contact Mr. Williams concerning any other issues and concerns that you may have in the future. If you still need to discuss this matter with me, I would ask that any such communications be in writing only. This will avoid any future miscommunication or misunderstanding. 

On a final note, it is unclear to me from reading your e-mail whether you are threatening to make public statements, some of which may be untrue or misleading, about MacDonald Realtors or me. If this is indeed your intention, I must warn you in the strongest way that any statements or “publishing of papers” by you or your organization that contains information that is inaccurate or libelous will be met with immediate action. Both myself and Macdonald Realtors work hard to maintain our quality reputations and we will not therefore permit any person or organization to act in a way that unfairly damages us.  I trust that you and your organization will govern yourselves accordingly.

Yours very truly,

MACDONALD REALTY (1974) LTD.

(signed)
Bill Dick
Senior Sales Manager
 

2001.01.14   VIA email to: bdick@macrealty.com  & by FAX to: 604-266-3515

Mr. Bill Dick,
Senior Sales Manager
Macdonald Realty (1974) Ltd.
2105 West 38th Avenue
Vancouver, B.C. V6M 1R8

Dear Mr. Dick:

RE: Chelsea Southlands, 41st  & Collingwood, Vancouver

Thank you for your letter dated January 8, 2000, in which you address some of the matters raised in my email dated January 2, 2000.

We take it from paragraph three of your letter that you do not independently verify the information provided by a developer before advertising what the developer or marketer has told you about warranties and the developer’s reputation.  

You may be correct in stating that I did not ask you to identify the principals of the developer of the subject project.  I do not recall.  I certainly did ask for the name of the developer and you told me “No. 158 Seabright Holdings Ltd.”  You did not volunteer the names of the principals.   The information is, of course, public by way of a corporate search. 

Your statement that “Macdonald Realtors is always prepared to review any of its advertising in order to ensure that such advertising is entirely accurate and never misleading” is very encouraging.

You have asked me to provide a copy of the advertisement in question.  The advertisement appeared in at least one issue of Condo Guide (Volume 8, Issue 24, November 17-December 1, 2000).  You probably have a copy in your files.  If not, I will arrange to get a copy of the ad for you.

I was pleased to read that Keith Williams of Glen Eagle Marketing “advised you that the advertisement previously run for the project in the Condo Guide has been suspended”.

You ask that I contact Mr. Keith Williams at 538-7597 for further information in response to my questions.  I regret to inform you that I had contacted Mr. Williams prior to contacting you.  He told me that he would not provide any information.

Please rest assured that I am not “threatening to make public statements, some of which may be untrue or misleading, about Macdonald Realtors.”  That is not my intention.  I informed you that we are preparing a paper for publication and that we wanted to determine certain facts.  The paper will be released shortly.  I will make sure you receive a copy.  Macdonald Realtors will be mentioned in the paper.  

You have said “ Both myself and Macdonald Realtors work hard to maintain our quality reputations and we will not therefore permit any person or organization to act in a way that unfairly damages us.”  Your suggestion that we govern ourselves accordingly has been noted.

We suggest that Macdonald Realtors exercise due diligence by carefully verifying the information that developers and their marketers give you before engaging in representing them.  It would be unfortunate if your otherwise good reputation suffered damage because of false, deceptive or misleading information supplied by or on behalf of developers.

Thousands of owners of leaky rotten condos have painfully learned first hand that we should not trust much of the information supplied by developers and their agents.  Some of the owners bought leaky rotten condos designed, developed, and built by people and companies involved with Chelsea Southlands.    

Your suggestion that we conduct any further discussion regarding these matters in writing is accepted.  We suggest that you conduct all future discussions with developers, builders, and marketers in writing and make same available to purchasers.

Yours truly,
 
 

James Balderson
Coalition of Leaky Condo Owners
www.myleakycondo.com