EAA Publications
|
| |
| The Freshman |
Content
Page |
| |
| Although property not listed,
prospective purchasers nonetheless appear |
| |
Mrs Poon is the owner of
a flat in Happy Valley. For the past two years the flat had
been let to an expatriate working in a bank.
One day, someone rang the door bell of the flat. The tenant
opened the door and saw three people, one of whom claiming that
he was Mrs Poon's estate agent and the purpose of the visit
was to show the flat to prospective purchasers in accordance
with Mrs Poon's instruction. Suspecting nothing, the tenant
let them in, and the agent took the two prospective purchasers
to examine the flat inside out for over twenty minutes.
After the three were gone, the tenant thought about the incident
and became suspicious. So he called Mrs Poon and asked her if
she was planning to sell the flat. Mrs Poon was baffled as she
had no intention of selling the flat, and did not list it with
any agent. However, as the agent only mentioned his name and
did not leave a name card or any means of making contact, Mrs
Poon had no means of finding out what happened. Even if she
wanted to lodge a complaint, she would not know whom to complain
against.
The above case brings out a couple of questions. First, under
common law, a tenant enjoys the exclusive right of occupying
the rented flat. Unless otherwise stated in the lease, even
the owner cannot interfere with the tenant's right or enter
the flat without the tenant's permission. Further, it was unwise
of the tenant to have let the agent in without first verifying
his identity, as the consequences could have been serious.
The estate agent in the above case had apparently misled the
prospective purchasers and caused them to waste their time because
he did not have any instruction from the owner. Moreover, since
the owner had never listed the flat, the agent should not have
in his possession the owner's personal data such as telephone
number. If, at a later stage, this agent wanted to contact the
owner to persuade her to list the flat, he might obtain through
illegal means the personal data of the owner, thereby violating
the law regarding personal data.
|
| |
