Estate agent burns down £1.5million home while preparing for house viewings after bizarre bedsheet accident
A REAL estate agent has burned down a £1.5 million house in a stunning Sydney suburb whilst preparing for a house viewing.
Julie Bundock, an agent from Sydney, had thrown damp bedding onto a shelf beside a wall-mounted light – which she then turned on.
Bundock told a court how she had been prepping the £1.5 million house for a viewing when she noticed that the current renters had left damp bedding on the deck so that it could dry.
The court heard how she gathered the sheets and threw them onto a shelf in a downstairs room, before turning on the light on the wall.
Within 20 minutes, the building had been set ablaze. Not long after, the house and all of its contents had been destroyed.
The owner of the property, Peter Alan Bush, and the four renters who had their belongings destroyed by the fire, took Bundock to court over the incident.
It has since emerged that after the fire, Bundock told Bush: “Oh my God Pete, I think I have burnt down your house.”
Bush added that she continued by saying: “I had been doing some tidying up.
“I collected some sheets drying on the veranda and threw them on top of a freestanding metal shelving in the bedroom under the stairs.
“I just threw them there Pete, right up against the light on the wall. I think that’s what started the fire.
After hearing all of the evidence against her, the chief judge on the case, David Hammerschlag, found Bundock to have been “actively” responsible for causing the fire.
He maintained that she was also liable for the consequent harm caused to the owner and the renters.
Judge Hammerschlag ruled that Bundock’s employer, Domain Residential Northern Beaches, were to pay Bush £380,142 for the loss of his house.
Domain Residential Northern Beaches were also ordered to pay £62,348 to the four renters who had their belongings destroyed.
The judge also found Bundock to have exhibited aggressive and uncooperative behaviours whilst she was in court.
Judge Hammerschlag stated: “Her evidence was clearly coloured by a heightened awareness that she had caused the catastrophe.”
Bundock’s employers attempted to argue that Bush and the renters had also contributed to the fire, by not warning the agency that the shelf would heat up as a result of the light.
The court rejected this decision.
Judge Hammerschlag said: “The submission is made in the context where none of the plaintiffs could have possibly or remotely conceived that Bundock might do what she did.
“There was no occasion which could reasonably have called for the suggested disclosure. Bundock acted on her own motion. Her actions were the sole cause of the harm.”
Judge Hammerschlag added: “That a fire might be caused by putting or throwing bedding up against a burning light is obvious.
“That risk was plainly foreseeable, and Bundock ought to have known this.”
Domain Residential Northern Beaches has also been ordered to pay interest on the remaining £442,910 owed to Bush.
It’s not the first time someone in Australia has accidentally burned a house down.
Back in 2019, a woman from Perth told how she had accidentally burned down her dad’s home after lighting a scented candle in her bedroom.
Luckily, her and her dad escaped the fire quickly – but her two pet rabbits tragically perished in the flames.
