BC Financial Services Authority has rescinded its license suspension order against Rent It Furnished Realty. Just three weeks back on July 25, BCFSA suspended Rent It Furnished’s license and froze its bank accounts.
Right after the suspension order, Rent It Furnished tapped accounting firm KPMG to conduct an independent audit of its operations. Additionally, BC Attorney General Wally Oppal who has served as a BC Supreme Court & Appeals Court Justice for over 25 years was hired by the firm as its legal representative. In a statement, Rent It Furnished called BCFSA actions “unnecessarily punitive and disproportionate.”
On August 9, the firm said in a press release, “Since the Urgent Order was issued, RIF hired accounting firm KPMG Forensic Inc. and on Wednesday, August 7, 2024, RIF supplied BCFSA with trust reconciliations that show sufficient funds are in the accounts to cover trust liabilities. As these records show that consumer funds are no longer at risk, BCFSA has unfrozen the trust accounts.”
Oppal said in his statement, “The BCFSA has a legitimate role to protect the public, but this suspension didn’t fit the circumstances and caused widespread disruption to the business and members of the public who depend on it. While Rent It Furnished had some administrative issues, the order was unnecessarily punitive, especially considering the business is classified an essential service. I am pleased the BCFSA took a second look and rescinded it.”
BCFSA has said it wasn’t aware of any consumer complaints, and the punitive action it took against RIF was in response to administrative issues including bookkeeping.
Of the issues, BCFSA said, “RIF was found to have committed professional misconduct between February 2017 and September 2020 and has been subject to a Consent Order since August 22, 2023. RIF has been non-compliant with the terms of the August 2023 Consent Order, which required it to provide monthly reconciliations of its trust accounts. Multiple of these trust account reconciliations have been deficient, which led to the accounts being frozen.”
Founder & CEO Erika Weimer said, “I am still numb from what happened because there was zero evidence of misappropriation of trust funds, which we fought relentlessly to prove. Though the suspension was brief, thousands of our landlords and tenants were disrupted and had to seek temporary assistance outside of our company to pay and receive rent, and we were forbidden from tending to building maintenance emergencies.”
