Actual estate brokers sued for alleged ‘sex-capade’ in clients’ home

(TheRealDeal) – James and Laura Glen expected an simple payday when they stated their three-bedroom condominium in a purple-very hot Hamptons sector with Brown Harris Stevens last spring.

But listing brokers Christopher Burnside and Aubri Peele experienced other takes advantage of for the unit in thoughts, the pair claimed.

In a lawsuit submitted final December, the Glens alleged that alternatively than soliciting gives for the property, the brokers utilised the guise of an open home to interact in a “sex-capade” in its main bedroom.

The lawsuit, which alleged that Burnside and Peele breached their contractual and fiduciary tasks in addition to inflicting emotional trauma on their shoppers, sought $100,000 in damages. Burnside, Peele and Brown Harris Stevens of the Hamptons were named as defendants.

“The whole lack of interest by defendants to act in the suitable way for the distinctive agent listing was compounded by the absolute disregard for another’s privacy and flagrant disrespect for another’s home,” the criticism read.

The situation was settled confidentially in February, at which level the events signed a non-disclosure settlement. The defendants and their attorney declined to comment and the plaintiff’s lawyer did not reply to requests for comment. A Brown Harris Stevens agent also declined to comment.

According to the grievance, James and Laura Glen gave Christopher Burnside distinctive legal rights to market their condominium on Could 15. Burnside allegedly advised the pair their waterfront Southampton rental, finish with a private dock, would be an simple market.

Soon right after entrusting the listing to Burnside in May 2021, the Glens departed for Florida, in accordance to the criticism. Burnside informed them that a brokers’ open residence was scheduled for May well 25 and a community open home for May possibly 27, the suit alleges.

But rather than an open house, protection cameras on May 25 allegedly captured Peele and a shirtless Burnside moving into the unit’s bed room before emerging 39 minutes afterwards.

Confronted with this information and facts, the lawsuit claims, Burnside confessed to utilizing the bedroom for a sexual face and supplied to continue on the listing with zero fee and satisfy his fiduciary duties underneath the unique contract. He also allegedly presented to rent the condo personally to offset the defendants’ financial damages.

Experience “violated” by the revelation, plaintiff Laura Glen refused to slumber in the bed room, the criticism alleged, and “wants almost nothing to do with the property.”

In September, the Glens attained out to Brown Harris Stevens CEO Bess Freeman to converse their “total frustration” that their device experienced received zero provides, in spite of a neighboring unit acquiring three that summer, in accordance to the grievance. The few sued 3 months afterwards.

Burnside has been a “top producer” for BHS since 1999, according to his internet site, which promises he is “consistently ranked in the prime 10 by profits volume in the Hamptons.”

Among his notable listings was the estate at 30 Spaeth Lane in East Hampton, which hit the market place for $72 million in 2020 and closed for $60 million last yr, in accordance to appraiser Miller Samuel.