Sadie supports her associate Syed, who is upset about a Scooping Sellers issue, while Marren and her broker Evelynn are dealing with a Supervision Shortage. After Evelynn and Sadie reached out to the other brokers involved with their respective issues, complaints were filed, and, in both cases, Marren Evelynn and Syed & Sadie requested a more in-depth review of the concerning conduct be undertaken via investigation.  

The purpose of the investigation is to hear from all individuals who were involved or have knowledge of the situation in the complaint, review any documents and consider the complaint, evidence and the rules to determine if the matter should be evaluated further in a hearing. 

In our Scooping Sellers scenario (alleged poaching of clients), Trey and his broker, Aron, haven’t been through the complaint process before. Neither has Ryerson nor his broker Quinn, who are dealing with a complaint about Supervision Shortage (home inspector left unattended without permission). When a complaint has been filed against a member, let’s break down what they can expect during the investigating phase. 

• Investigations are conducted by three CREB^® members who are part of the PSAT (specially trained to conduct investigations); this is the investigating team. 
• A member of the investigating team will contact them to coordinate a date for an interview. 
• If a member has any documents to support their account of what happened, they should bring them to the interview. 
• The interview could be 30- 90 minutes long but could vary, and members might have more than one interview. The length or number of interviews should not be cause for concern.  
• The investigating team might ask for more documents and information; this is normal and should be expected; it’s not indicative of any outcome. 
• An investigating team can’t speculate on the outcome of a file before the decision is delivered in writing, so asking them questions about whether a member did anything wrong can’t be answered.  
• The interview isn’t intended to cause stress. Sometimes complex questions have to be asked and can cause members discomfort. If you need a break, it’s okay to ask the investigating team for a break… sometimes the team would also benefit from a break to process information. 
• It’s okay for the Broker to be at the interview to support their associate. Sometimes, Brokers will be interviewed separately first, depending on the matter. 

Scooping Sellers

Sadie accompanied Syed to his interview after verifying that the investigating team didn’t need to interview her. Syed was encouraged to share his account of events, and the investigating team thanked him for providing his seller’s account of the situation.

While Syed was initially nervous about providing his seller’s contact details so they could be interviewed, Sadie helped reassure him that his seller’s first-hand account of what happened is an important part of exploring the issue thoroughly. 

Trey and Aron were interviewed together, and even though Aron couldn’t answer questions intended for Trey, Trey was still relieved to have Aron there to support him. The investigating team had many questions that made Trey nervous that perhaps he had done something wrong, and it must have been apparent because they offered to give them a break partway through the interview.

Now, Trey has to wait to see if they contact him with more questions or need him to provide any extra information or documents. 

Supervision Shortage 

Marren felt good about her interview; she came with all the documents and shared the different parts of the rules that she considers Ryerson violated. The investigating team only had a handful of questions for her, and Evelynn, Marren’s broker, wasn’t interviewed at all.  

After Ryerson and Quinn had their interviews, Ryerson shared with Quinn that it wasn’t like the police dramas at all, which was his only reference to what he might expect. There were no 1-way mirrors or aggressive questioning tactics. Instead, they all met in a meeting room at CREB^®, and for the most part, they listened to his story, took some notes and asked some questions.

It was over in about an hour, and he only needed to send the investigating team the contact details for the inspector. Quinn shared that his interview was almost the same, but it didn’t go as long, and he needs to provide the document of the brokerage policy and procedures.  

With the interviews completed, the investigating teams are reviewing their assigned complaints and considering all the information they received from the complaint documents, interviews and additional information collected from the investigation.

While our fictional members are waiting for the outcome of the investigation, the investigating teams are drafting their decisions. What will the outcome be? Will the complaints be dismissed, or will the Scooping Seller's situation or Supervision Shortage complaint move forward to a hearing? Watch for our next installment on demystifying formal complaints: from frustration to resolution.