Edited photos, virtual staging should void contract for home purchase, B.C. man argues

This photo shows a contract for purchase and sale. (Credit: Shutterstock)

A B.C. man who backed out on a deal to buy a house after he realized online photos of it were edited and virtually staged has been ordered to pay a penalty for rescinding the contract.

Braden Messenger entered into a $490,000 contract of purchase and sale for a property being sold by Mary Bell in 2023, according to a decision from the Civil Resolution Tribunal on the dispute over the $1,225 fee.

"It is undisputed that Mr. Messenger did not view the property before agreeing to the CPS," tribunal member Alison Wake wrote.

After seeing the property, Messenger notified Bell that he was rescinding the contract. He argued he should not have to pay the fee, which Bell was claiming, because the property was misrepresented.

"Mr. Messenger says that before he made the offer that formed the basis for the CPS, Ms. Bell or her agent added photographs to the property’s online listing that had been virtually staged and significantly altered, without including a disclaimer or notation," the decision said.

"Mr. Messenger says these photographs constitute a misrepresentation, and so the CPS is void."

Bell did not dispute that the photos were edited and evidence reviewed by the tribunal showed that the listing photos were "significantly altered," including by being virtually staged. In one instance, according to the decision, a "large area of peeling paint" had been edited out of a photo of a bedroom.

However, the issue of whether the property was misrepresented was found to be irrelevant to the question of whether Messenger was required to pay the fee.

Messenger signed a "notice of rescission" exercising his right to terminate the contract under a particular section of B.C.'s Property Law Act. This, Bell argued, was not his only option in the situation.

"Mr. Messenger could have let his offer lapse by not removing the subjects to it, with no penalty," the decision says.

Contracts can be cancelled for "a material misrepresentation by the other party," the tribunal noted. But the document Messenger signed explicitly agreed to a penalty equivalent to 0.25 per cent of the property's sale price — an amount mandated by B.C.'s Home Buyer Rescission Period Regulation.

"I find that I do not need to determine whether Ms. Bell materially misrepresented the property’s condition, because Mr. Messenger agreed to pay the rescission fee in any event," Wake wrote.

In addition to the fee, Messenger was ordered to pay Bell $73.84 in pre-judgment and $125 in tribunal fees.