A Sydney real estate agent accidentally burned her client’s multimillion-dollar Northern Beaches home to ground, a court has ruled.
Domain Residential realtor Julie Bundock was supervising an open house at the four-bedroom home on Riverview Rd at Avalon Beach in May 2019 when the blaze erupted, and she had to make an unenviable call to her client.
“Oh my God, Pete, I think I have burnt down your house,” homeowner Peter Alan Bush told the Supreme Court of NSW that Bundock said to him over the phone.
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Bundock admitted to tossing some of the tenants’ bedding, which was drying on the verandah, onto a freestanding metal shelf next to a wall-mounted light in one of the bedrooms while she was tidying.
“I just threw them there, Pete, right up against the light on the wall. I think that’s what started the fire,” Bush recalled Bundock saying, in court documents obtained by 7NEWS.com.au.
It is believed heat from the light set the bedding on fire within 20 minutes.
The blaze quickly destroyed the home along with all the possessions of the four tenants who had been living there.
The tenants sued Bush — who had been trying to sell the home — for their losses, and he in turn filed a cross-claim against the agent.
Bundock’s defence did attempt to shift part of the blame onto Bush and the four tenants, claiming it was negligent they didn’t inform her the light could get so hot. However, that was rejected.
Chief Judge in Equity Justice David Hammerschlag said: “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 found Bundock “actively created the risk of fire” and that “her actions were the sole cause of the harm”.
Bundock’s employer, real estate agency Domain Residential, was ordered to pay $862,315 to be split between the homeowner and tenants, plus interest on the amount from the time of the fire.
Bush will receive $740,642 for costs including demolition and rebuilding, safety assessments, and 54 weeks of lost rent, while the tenants will receive a combined $121,475 for loss and damages as a result of a breach of contract.
7NEWS.com.au has contacted Domain Residential for comment.