<!–
<!–
<!– <!–
<!–
<!–
<!–
A real estate agency has been ordered to pay more than $850,000 in damages after a high-flying agent accidentally set fire to a multimillion-dollar home just minutes before an open house inspection.
Julie Bundock was preparing for an open house at a four-bedroom home on Sydney’s prestigious northern beaches when she noticed the current tenants had left the bedding on the patio to dry.
She removed the sheets and threw them into a downstairs room on a shelf near a light, which she then turned on. news.com.au reported.
About 20 minutes later, a major fire broke out at the home on Riverview Road in Avalon Beach, likely caused by the heater and bedding catching fire from the light.
Julie Bundock was preparing for an open house at a four-bedroom home on Sydney’s prestigious northern beaches when she noticed the home’s current tenants had left bedding on the patio to dry.
The house, worth an estimated $3 million, and all of its contents were destroyed in the fire.
The house, estimated to be worth around $3 million, and all of its contents were destroyed in the fire.
The property’s owner, Peter Alan Bush, and the tenants took the matter to court.
Mr. Bush said that after the fire, Ms. Bundock uttered words like: “Oh my God Pete, I think I burned your house down” in the presence of her de facto partner.
“I was tidying up. I grabbed some sheets that were drying on the porch and threw them on a freestanding metal rack in the bedroom, under the stairs. I just threw them there Pete, right in front of the light on the wall. I think that’s what started the fire,” he recalled in court.
Chief Justice David Hammerschlag delivered his judgment to the Supreme Court on Tuesday, after determining that Ms. Bundock “actively created the fire hazard and resulting damage.”
He ordered Ms Bundock’s employer, Domain Residential Northern Beaches, to pay Mr Bush $740,642 for the loss of his home and a total of $121,475 to the four tenants.
The real estate agency was ordered to pay more than $850,000 in damages after a high-flying agent accidentally set fire to a multimillion-dollar home just minutes before an open house.
Mr. Hammerschlag also ordered the agency to pay interest on the total of $862,315, from the May 2019 fire.
“It is obvious that a fire can be caused by placing or throwing bedding in front of a lit light. This risk was entirely foreseeable and Bundock should have known it,” he said in making his decision.
He went on to say that Ms Bundock was an “aggressive and uncooperative witness” in court and that “her testimony was clearly colored by a heightened awareness that she had caused the disaster”.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Domain Residential Northern Beaches for comment.