A real estate agent accidentally burned a multimillion-dollar property to the ground while preparing for an open house, with her employer ordered to pay more than $555,161 in damages.
Australian real estate agent Julie Bundock was preparing for an open house at a four-bedroom home on Sydney’s northern beaches when she noticed the current renters of the house had left some bedding on the deck to dry.
She removed the sheets and threw them in a downstairs room onto a shelf below a light, which she then switched on.
About 20 minutes later a major fire broke out in the house on Riverview Road in Avalon Beach, believed to be caused by the shelf and bedding heating up and catching fire due to the wall-mounted light.
The house — estimated to be worth around $2 million — along with all of its contents, was destroyed.
The owner of the property, Peter Alan Bush, who was preparing to sell the property, took the matter to court; as did the four renters of the property who had their belongings destroyed in the fire.
Bush told the court that after the fire, Bundock said words to the effect of: “Oh my God Pete, I think I have burnt down your house,” he claimed she said in the presence of others, including his de facto partner Lynne Emanuel.
“I had been doing some tidying up. I collected some sheets drying on the veranda and threw them on top of a freestanding metal shelving in the bedroom under the stairs. I just threw them there Pete, right up against the light on the wall. I think that’s what started the fire.”
Chief Judge in Equity Justice David Hammerschlag handed down his Judgment on Tuesday in the Supreme Court, ruling that Bundock “actively created the risk of fire and the consequent harm.”
Judge Hammerschlag ordered Bundock’s employer, Domain Residential Northern Beaches, to pay Bush $483,736 for the loss of his house and a combined $79,339 to the four renters, Elise Coulter, Reggie Songaila, Lauren Coulter and Ella Eagle.
Judge Hammerschlag also ordered the agency to pay interest on the combined $563,204, from the time of the fire in May 2019.
“That a fire might be caused by putting or throwing bedding up against a burning light is obvious. That risk was plainly foreseeable, and Bundock ought to have known this,” he stated in his decision.
Judge Hammerschlag also noted that Bundock was an “aggressive and uncooperative witness” in court.
“Her evidence was clearly colored by a heightened awareness that she had caused the catastrophe,” the decision stated.
Domain Residential Northern Beaches attempted to argue that Bush and the renters also played a part in the damage as they did not inform the agency that the shelf would heat up as a result of the light.
Judge Hammerschlag rejected this suggestion.
“The submission is made in the context where none of the plaintiffs could have possibly or remotely conceived that Bundock might do what she did,” he stated.
“There was no occasion which could reasonably have called for the suggested disclosure. Bundock acted on her own motion. Her actions were the sole cause of the harm.”
Domain Residential told news.com.au they did not wish to comment on the judgment. Bundock was contacted for comment.
