Innocent real estate search destroys woman’s retirement dreams
When Fiona Cairns moved to Australia from New Zealand 30 years ago, she arrived with nothing but two suitcases and a dream for a better life.
“All I ever wanted was to live the dream, to own my own property in retirement, have my super and travel,” she said.
When Fiona Cairns moved to Australia from New Zealand 30 years ago, she arrived with nothing but two suitcases and a dream for a better life. A Current Affair
“I’ve worked really, really hard to get to where I’ve got to.”
An innocent real estate search would introduce the single mum to agent James ‘Jim’ Chetcuti.
It was a meeting that would end up destroying her retirement dreams.
Chetcuti convinced Cairns to sell her current townhouse where she had lived for 18 years and rent while an off the plan dream home was being built.
“So this was supposed to be my dream home, low maintenance, no upkeep needed,” Cairns said.
Cairns signed the contract for the sale of her house in July 2021. A Current Affair
“Jim came around and drove around in his Lexus and looked like a nice car.
“Then looked at my house and said how neat and tidy it was and that he would like to list it.”
She claims the high-pressure tactics started almost immediately.
“He was relentless in pursuing me with phone calls,” she said.
“It just wore me down that I was just like ‘just go away, just do whatever you have to do and go away and leave me’.”
Cairns signed the contract for the sale of her house in July 2021.
Cairns claims the high-pressure tactics started almost immediately. A Current Affair
What she did not know was that Chetcuti had already approached authorities about declaring bankruptcy, which triggered the cancellation of his property agent licence by Queensland’s Office of Fair Trading.
However he continued to promote listings online for at least another 15 months.
“It shouldn’t be your job to go and check that they’re a bankrupt,” Cairns said.
“It shouldn’t be your job, you should be protected and know that the person that you’re dealing with is represented and qualified to be able to do that job.”
The sale of her house left Cairns with almost $200,000 to invest while she waited for her new home to be built.
“He walked into my house and he took a measure of me and he summed me up,” Cairns said.
“This man purposely sized me up.
“And I have to live with that for the rest of my life, that there are people who we think we can trust and they ruin your life.”
Chetcuti even sold Cairns on buying shares in a mining giant as part of an investment scheme, reassuring her with the phrase “trust me, I’m a real estate agent”.
“He just kept it up, he was just like ‘you know, it’s a great deal, come on Fiona, I just want to do this for you, I’d like to see you set up in your retirement’,” Cairns said.
“I ended up giving him my money.”
Chetcuti even sold Cairns on buying shares in a mining giant as part of an investment scheme, reassuring her with the phrase “trust me, I’m a real estate agent”. A Current Affair
Two years after selling her home, alarm bells started to ring and Cairns started googling.
“That’s when I went onto the ASIC website and paid $30 to find out, yes, he was a bankrupt and he was still active in the market and that’s when it just fell… I fell to pieces,” Cairns said.
Her fight to get her money back started in 2023.
An innocent real estate search would introduce the single mum to agent James ‘Jim’ Chetcuti (pictured). A Current Affair
The excuses came thick and fast in the beginning.
“I was calling Jim and I was asking him to repay my money and he would find an excuse and it was all done by text messages,” Cairns said.
The formerly chatty agent went silent and Cairns launched a case with the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) to try and get her money back.
“That whole process took me probably 26 months to pursue,” Cairns said.
“It was difficult, it took a lot of resilience.
“There were lots of times I just wanted to give up, but I did pursue it.”
QCAT ruled in her favour and almost five years after her townhouse was sold she was awarded $270,000 in compensation, a debt Chetcuti is liable to repay.
After being out of the real estate market for so long and missing out on so much capital gains, Cairns fears she’ll never get back in. A Current Affair
A Current Affair reached out to Chetcuti who hung up on our producer then blocked us.
In her decision QCAT member Rebecca Bellamy said Chetcuti “leveraged his status and position as a real estate salesperson to induce” Cairns “to rely on whatever he told her” and that she “fell victim to a man who had the appearance of legitimacy”.
After being out of the real estate market for so long and missing out on so much capital gains, Cairns fears she’ll never get back in.
“I will now just be another cohort of a 60-year-old woman who will never own her home,” she said.
“I only ever just wanted to be independent, look after myself, make my own decisions, and that independence has been taken from me now.”
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