Huntersville broker’s license suspended

The North Carolina Real Estate Commission has suspended the license of a Charlotte-area broker after she failed to provide the commission with proof that she had completed continuing-education coursework.
According to the commission, Kitty Nelson Giese worked as a property manager between 2009 and 2014, during which time she neglected to register her sole proprietorship with the Mecklenburg County Register of Deeds. Nor, the commission said, did she notify the commission of the proprietorship.
In addition, according to an August 2015 consent order signed by Giese, she failed declare herself broker-in-charge or to meet requirements to become a broker-in-charge; failed to remit rent proceeds in a timely manner; listed another firm as the agent on a lease agreement without that company’s knowledge; failed to open a trust account; mingled personal funds with trust funds; and did not maintain trust-account records in accordance with commission rules. Giese ceased all brokerage activity in November 2014, the commission said.
N.C. Real Estate Commission Assistant Director of Regulatory Affairs Charlene Moody said that Giese didn’t remit at least one rental payment when it was due in 2014. Giese made the payment at a later date, Moody said.
On Sept. 1, the commission suspended Giese’s license for 24 months, but said it would stay that suspension on Jan. 1 if Giese provided the regulatory body with a certificate showing she had satisfactorily completed real estate courses in ethics and in issues and answers. In addition, the commission said, it would place Giese on probation until Sept. 1, 2017, and bar her from acting as a property manager until Sept. 1, 2020.
But the commission said in its order dated Jan. 7 that Giese did not satisfy those requirements and the suspension is now valid until Sept. 1, 2017.
Reached by telephone, Giese said that a misunderstanding had occurred in that she was unable to complete the coursework in the four-month time period allotted. She said she had taken the ethics course, but found out too late in December when the issues and answers class was being offered and could not attend.
Giese, who lives in Huntersville, said she has raised the issue regarding her scheduling conflict with the commission but no consensus was reached.
Moody agreed, saying Giese attended a commission meeting last month asking for an extension after the two available issues and answers class had already been held in September and December.
Giese said she signed the commission’s August consent order, in which she agreed to the commission’s charges, on the advice of her attorney. In signing the document, Giese agreed to waive all rights to seek judicial review or to otherwise challenge the document’s validity.
“I thought I would have time to take the classes,” she said, adding that she intended to appeal the commission’s decision to suspend her license for two years.
“I’m 67 years old,” she said, adding that the situation has been financially draining on her because, she said, she hasn’t worked in real estate in more than a year.
“It’s just not fair. I worked so hard for 30 years,” Giese said. “I did not confiscate funds or take anybody’s money.”