A new disciplinary complaint concerning nine buildings was filed by the trustee of the Organisme d’autoréglementation du courtageimmobilier du Québec (OACIQ) against the star of the show Numbers 1 in Casa, Christine Girouard. These revelations were made during the sanction hearings during which the OACIQ requested a lifetime deregistration for Mme Girouard and his partner.
The new complaint against Christine Girouard was filed based on requests for public assistance received over the past few months. The alleged events occurred before the publication of the investigation The Press in May 2023, since M’s practice permitme Girouard was subsequently suspended.
According to the OACIQ, the real estate broker once again implemented stratagems to generate higher bids for six buildings, in addition to trapping real estate brokers representing buyers by asking them to increase their offer in a fictitious higher bid on these six buildings and three others.
These transactions took place during a period of bidding wars, in 2021 and 2022.
Mme Girouard will have to answer 13 charges in the fall of 2024, during long 13-day hearings scheduled for October and November.
What sanctions for the broker couple?
The OACIQ hearings on the sanctions to be taken against Christine Girouard and her partner Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin took place this Monday in Brossard. The organization’s disciplinary committee concluded last January that the two brokers orchestrated a scheme of bogus purchase promises to create overbidding, a scheme revealed by The Press one year ago1.
Both brokers attended the oral arguments via video conference, as they are currently busy with the birth of their first baby.
OACIQ lawyer Isabelle Martel called for a suspension of the brokers’ licenses for life, without the possibility that they will one day be able to practice this profession again, “because they are irrecoverable,” she explained.
For Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin, the lawyer adds a fine of $100,000. In the case of Mme Girouard, she considers that a fine commensurate with the alleged acts is necessary, i.e. $50,000 per charge and $10,000 for the fault regarding the legal guarantee of quality. The total comes to $260,000, a historic fine.
Until now, it was Brigitte Le Pailleur who received the most severe fine imposed on a real estate broker last year. She had to pay $150,000, which translates to $50,000 per charge2.
“Gravity demands that we ask for the total,” said M.e Martel, explaining that there is now a before and after the Girouard affair and that public confidence in the confidentiality of purchase promises is called into question.
Too harsh, argues the defense
On the defense side, these sanctions are too heavy and unjustified.
“For us, it is clear that we wish to punish the respondents. For me, adding fines of this nature to the revocation or suspension, whether permanent or not, ensures that we wish to punish and achieve the objective of punishing the respondents,” argued Mr.e Martin Courville, reminding the members of the disciplinary committee that the aim of the sanctions is not to punish the guilty, but to ensure the protection of the public and to deter brokers from reoffending.
According to Me Courville, lifetime deregistrations are given to brokers already retired or only a few years from retirement, as was the case of broker Brigitte Le Pailleur, and not to young brokers like her clients.
“The sanction that will allow you to accomplish your mission is the one that we offer you,” he assured, listing during his pleading a long list of cases of removal without fine.
In this sense, he wanted to convince the committee that Mme Girouard was to be suspended for 10 years and Mr. Dauphinais-Fortin for 5 years.
“Ten years is a long time, it’s not trivial,” said Me Courville, specifying that the fact that his clients asked him to plead such sanctions is proof that they recognize the seriousness of their actions.
The chairman of the committee, Pierre R. Sicotte, for his part exposed the dangers of granting a “candy sentence”. “The result is that the public risks not being protected, because people will say: that’s just the sanction,” he maintained.
What will the sanctions be? The decision will be made in June, because the president of the disciplinary committee is absent for a month, he said.
1. Read the article “Broker Christine Girouard and her spouse found guilty”
2. Read the article “Historic fine for broker Brigitte Le Pailleur”