A fellow Keller Williams agent refuses to pay my referral commission - help!

[Aly W.]

Any other agents out there experience this? I have a signed referral form for a transaction in which I referred a buyer to another KW agent in the Princeton, NJ office. Each office is independently owned. I'm a referral agent and the other agent is a full time realtor.

The other agent and broker signed the referral form a year ago, for a short sale transaction that finally closed. The agent had stopped communicating long ago, and another agent notified me that the property finally closed. Yes, I should have kept closer tabs on this. The agent refused to return calls or emails.

My broker/Team Leader got involved, and after various emails and phone calls, we were told by the other broker that the agent would have to bring my commission money back to her office, and they would forward it to my office. That never happened.

After filing a complaint with the REC against her broker for "failure to supervise", the Princeton office says they have put a lien on the agent's future commissions, should there ever be any, and that's the only way they will reimburse me.

The REC claims this is an issue of contract law and I'll have to follow up with the local Real Estate board.

Anyone ever gone through this before? What is the typical outcome? Any advice to pursue this? The agent also burned the buyer that I referred, but that's for another thread.

Thanks in advance!

[Aly W.]

Shannon, I don't do this full time or even part time, so there are no other clients to take time away from. The money may never be seen again, I understand that, but I would prefer that no other agents go through this. She's burned 2 of us, plus my referred client, and just ignoring it won't make her stop doing that to others.

In my opinion, helping others avoid her would be in their best interests too.