CALGARY – It’s been almost a month since Royal LePage foothills closed its doors, leaving an uncertain future for some 163 real estate agents employed there.
Global News was approached by one of those realtors and has agreed to protect his identity over concerns this story may hurt future business.
He was given notice that the company was closing all six of its southern Alberta branches on Dec. 14, 2015.
Days later, he said he inquired with the brokerage about commissions still owed to him from the sale of a home worth over $600,000.
He said he spoke directly with the broker and owner of Royal LePage Foothills, Ted Zaharko.
“He says ‘you’ll get a cheque shortly.’ And I say, ‘how shortly?’ and he said, ‘well maybe even tomorrow or the next day.’ Well, the next day went by…” said the realtor, who has since moved on to another agency.
Commission from the sale was over $11,000. The agency gets a 20 per cent cut – but that still leaves almost $9,000 unpaid.
“I feel I earned it and so I want it.”
Zaharko said in a statement Tuesday, “Royal LePage Foothills has today, completed a clean audit of the trust account and will be dealing with further issues within the next few days”.
Royal LePage Canada also responded with the following statement:
Royal LePage Canada became involved as soon as we became aware of the issue with Royal LePage Foothills. The long-time owner of Foothills, Mr. Ted Zaharko, advised us at that time that he had decided that he could no longer viably operate his brokerage and would wind down the business. With Mr. Zaharko’s cooperation, most of the agents have been transferred to the two other large Calgary brokerages, Royal LePage Benchmark and Royal LePage Solutions, and are now working under new ownership. This was done to make this transition as smooth as possible for all agents involved, and to ensure their ability to serve their clients continued uninterrupted.
We understand that Mr. Zaharko may still owe commissions to a minority of his former agents and that he has publicly committed to paying what is owed. Royal LePage Solutions and Royal LePage Benchmark are working with Royal LePage Canada to provide assistance programs to their current agents who may be negatively impacted by a delay in receiving commissions owed to them by their former company.
Foothills was a long-standing independently-owned and operated business in the Royal LePage franchise system.
Comments