Miss Kam worked in a bank. One day, she accompanied her friend Miss Tien to Tsuen Wan to view a residential unit recommended by the estate agency A Co. At the time, the vendor asked for $1.75 million. Miss Tien had entered into a prescribed estate agency agreement with A Co. Although she was keen on the flat, the vendor's asking price was higher than what she regarded as reasonable. So she told the vendor and the agent that she needed to consider it further. However, as Miss Tien was often out of town on business, Miss Kam agreed to act as Miss Tien's contact, and gave her card to Mr F, an employee of A Co. Later, Miss Tien saw other flats through other agents and settled on one.
Several months later, Miss Kam bought the flat that she had seen with Miss Tien through estate agency B Co. Two months later, she received a phone call from Mr F of A Co demanding from her commission for the purchase of the flat. Miss Kam replied that she had negotiated the purchase of the flat through B Co and, since she had not signed any agreement with A Co, she refused to comply with his demand.
Subsequently, Miss Kam received a stream of calls from a debt collection company claiming to be engaged by A Co to collect commission from her. Abusive language and even threatening words were used in these calls. At first, she only received calls in her workplace. Later, her colleagues and even her boss also received similar phone calls and faxes, leaving Miss Kam much embarrassed and disturbed. Miss Kam was then transferred to another branch of the same bank but the embarrassing calls and faxes did not cease.
In this case, as Miss Kam had not entered into a prescribed estate agency agreement with A Co, A Co would have difficulty in suing her for commission. If A Co believed that she was liable to pay commission for the estate agency services rendered, it should obtain a judgment on the liability of commission from a court of law before commencing enforcement actions. If a debt collection company is engaged, an estate agency must expressly instruct the company that in the course of debt collection the company must not use intimidation or violence, whether verbal or physical, against any person, and that the company must not harass the debtor or humiliate him/her or appropriate or damage the debtor's properties.
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