Civil Fraud Definition
A statement made by a person:
- Knowingly, or
- Without belief in its truth, or
- Recklessly, careless whether it be true or false
is fraud from a legal perspective.
This definition does back to Derry v. Peek (1889 House of Lords, England).
Any one of the three would be sufficient to fulfill the requirements.
So, a reckless and careless statement is good enough.
In 1889, the Courts wanted you to check your source!
For real estate agents, that is included in the Code of Ethics. But, it’s not really “new”.
Brian Madigan LL.B., Broker