These included a failure to get Tieu’s official acceptance of a $1.15m counter-offer and Barfoot & Thompson agent Prince Kapoor’s “unreliable” use of an iPad app to copy and paste digital initials on to a clause in the agreement.
Kapoor defended his actions in court as an attempt to “tidy up” the electronic document, but admitted the copy-pasting was a “big mistake”.
“I should have just told her to initial it there, but just to make contract, because some lawyer, sometime [sic] they come back and they do ask, you know, it looks different,” he told the court.
The August ruling also served as a reminder for all Kiwis completing electronic property transactions about what counts as a valid digital signature.
Former Barfoot & Thompson real estate agent Prince Kapoor was described as one of the agency’s brightest young talents in a OneRoof article.
Judge Davenport ruled that while copy-pasting signatures can be legally valid, it is only enforceable if the method is “exclusively linked” to the person signing and if the action is under their direct control.
She said Kapoor’s explanation that he did not want to use DocuSign or the Apple pen with Notability “because lawyers might ask questions if they looked different is telling”.
Signed but not sealed
The Barrack Rd townhouse first went on sale in 2022 as one of several units being built and sold by OLA Homes.
In March 2022, Tieu – herself a Barfoot & Thompson agent – made a $1.12m offer for the four-bedroom property through the company’s internal DocuSign platform.
She signed the offer on March 29 and texted Kapoor to confirm, asking him to add a clause acknowledging she was a real estate agent buying through the same firm.
Two days later, OLA Homes responded – not with an acceptance but with a $1.15m counter-offer.
Under contract law, that counter-offer automatically cancelled Tieu’s original offer.
The counter-offer was emailed to Tieu with the subject line “final offer”.
Tieu told the court she believed the email was just a copy of the agreement she had already signed and so did nothing with it.
On April 4, OLA Homes director Sifen Li signed the original $1.12m offer – not the $1.15m counter-offer – and sent it back through Kapoor.
Because Tieu’s original offer had been cancelled by the counter-offer, this created a new offer requiring fresh acceptance from Tieu.
Kapoor also added the clause Tieu had asked for – a declaration that she was a real estate agent.
Developer OLA Homes built and put on sale a number of Auckland townhouses at 127 Barrack Rd in Mt Wellington.
To place Tieu’s initials on the clause, Kapoor opened the document in an iPad app called Notability and copied the DocuSign initials Tieu had placed on the original March 29 offer, pasting them next to the new clause.
Tieu said she never met Kapoor on April 4 and never signed or initialled anything after March 29.
However, Kapoor said they met that afternoon and she placed the initials herself.
The judge found she could not determine who was telling the truth, but that the developer hadn’t proved the signatures were reliable.
Kapoor’s iPad was reportedly stolen later that month, leaving no digital audit trail for the court.
Tieu paid a $56,000 deposit on April 4, 2022, saying she believed a valid contract was in place.
However, she did not settle when the property was fully built in November 2022.
OLA Homes resold the townhouse in March 2023 for $875,000.
From failed deal to failed court case
The developer then sued Tieu in the Auckland District Court for $214,530 in damages plus $47,976 in contractual interest.
Tieu initially defended the claim on the grounds of misrepresentation over the property’s land size and advertising.
She later amended her defence to argue that no valid contract had ever been formed.
Judge Davenport found in Tieu’s favour on two grounds.
That included that the counter-offer had overridden the original agreement and no fresh acceptance was obtained.
She also found the electronic signature method was unreliable because the initials were not exclusively linked to Tieu or under her control when they were pasted.
Davenport dismissed OLA Homes’ claim, ordered Tieu’s $56,000 deposit returned with interest, and awarded her costs.
Developer OLA Homes had to sell the 127D Barrack Rd townhouse at their Barrack Rd development in Mt Wellington for $245,000 less when the original sale deal fell through in 2022.
What the parties think
OLA Homes and Kapoor were approached for comment.
The judgment noted Kapoor was no longer a real estate agent.
He earlier won Barfoot & Thompson’s “Rising Star of the Year” award in 2020, beating out roughly 75 other rookies.
In a 2020 OneRoof profile article, Kapoor described a future in real estate in which “the sky’s the limit”.
“Everyone is looking after you, they value you like you are part of the family,” Kapoor said about working for Barfoot.
Barfoot & Thompson compliance manager Priya Patel said the agency had “comprehensive policies, procedures and training in place to support our people and to ensure professional standards are upheld”.
“As this matter relates to an individual and has been subject to legal proceedings, it would not be appropriate for us to comment further,” she said.