A real estate company has been ordered to pay more than $850,000 in damages after a high-flying agent accidentally burned down a multi-million dollar home just minutes before an open house inspection.
Julie Bundock was preparing for an open day at a four-bedroom house on Sydney’s prestigious Northern Beaches when she noticed the current tenants had left bed linen drying on the deck.
She removed the sheets and threw them in a downstairs room on a shelf near a lamp, 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, believed to be caused by the board and bedding heating up from the light and catching fire.
Julie Bundock was preparing for an open house at a four-bedroom house on Sydney’s prestigious Northern Beaches when she noticed that the house’s current tenants had left some linens drying on the deck
The house, estimated to be worth about $3 million, was destroyed in the fire along with all its contents
The house, estimated to be worth about $3 million, was destroyed in the fire along with all its contents.
The owner of the property, Peter Alan Bush, and the tenants took the matter to court.
Mr Bush said that after the fire, Ms Bundock said words to the effect of: ‘Oh my God Pete, I think I burned down your house’, in the presence of his de facto partner.
‘I was doing some cleaning up. I gathered some sheets drying on the porch and threw them on a free-standing metal shelf in the bedroom under the stairs. I just threw them there, Pete, right against the light on the wall. I think that’s what started the fire,” he recalled in court.
Chief Judge David Hammerschlag handed down his ruling at the High Court on Tuesday after finding that Ms Bundock ‘actively created the risk of fire 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 property was ordered to pay more than $850,000 in damages after a high-flying cop accidentally burned down a multi-million dollar home just minutes before an open house.
Mr. Hammerschlag also ordered the agency to pay interest on the combined $862,315, from the time of the fire in May 2019.
‘It is obvious that a fire can start if you put or throw bed linen against a burning light. “That risk was clearly foreseeable, and Bundock should have known,” he said when announcing his decision.
He went on to say that Ms Bundock was an ‘aggressive and uncooperative witness’ in court and that ‘her evidence was clearly colored by a heightened sense that she had caused the catastrophe.’
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Domain Residential Northern Beaches for comment.
