Noosa Estate Agents to defend allegations after Dowling Neylan sues for $1.6m

Former employees of a renowned Noosa real estate agency say they will defend ‘embarrassing’ allegations made against them in a $1.6 million lawsuit.

The Dowling Neylan offices in Noosa. Picture: Supplied

Former employees of Dowling Neylan say they will defend “embarrassing” allegations made by the renowned real estate agency, which has filed a $1.6 million lawsuit against them.

The long-established agency headed by Dan Neylan claimed in court filings there was evidence to suggest five former employees used confidential client information to help form Noosa Estate Agents.

Lawyer for Noosa Estate Agents Millie Russell told The Courier-Mail the new firm would be defending the allegations.

“My client’s position is that Mr Neylan is concerned about competition on the Sunshine Coast,” Ms Russell said.

Dowling Neylan blamed a loss of $1,625,475 on the employees allegedly breaching their contractual duties, according to documents filed with the Supreme Court of Queensland this month.

Dan Neylan, head of Noosa real estate agency Dowling Neylan.

The Statement of Claim, first lodged in late March and later amended, alleged Nathan Howie, Samantha Plummer, Scott Cowley and Kelsie Melville encouraged each other and Angela Wood to resign from Dowling Neylan and provide services in competition.

In defence documents filed last month the agents denied the allegations and asserted Dowling Neylan hadn’t provided material facts in support of the allegations.

“The allegations are embarrassing and liable to be struck out,” the agents said in their defence.

They named in court documents six clients across Noosa who they say refused to engage their services while they were employed by Mr Neylan.

“From in or about mid-2019, the plaintiff’s business was declining; the plaintiff’s reputation in the marketplace was poor,” the agents said in their defence.

“ … the plaintiff has a high turnover of administrative staff, which adversely affected the sales agents’ abilities to service clients.”

The five agents resigned between August and December last year.

Dowling Neylan has further alleged that Ms Melville and Ms Wood downloaded, printed or copied the company’s confidential information from a cloud system before their resignations.

The agents denied the allegation, saying it wasn’t true that they downloaded all of the information Dowling Neylan had alleged.

The agents also denied further allegations that upon resigning they failed to return to Dowling Neylan all of its confidential information and then used the information for the advantage of Noosa Estate Agents.

Mr Neylan scrapped his bid to scour the agents’ office and homes after The Courier-Mail in March viewed his ex-parte application for the search which his former agents weren’t privy to.

He prefaced some particulars in his subsequent statement of claim by saying they were provided “without the benefit of disclosure and other interlocutory processes to further particularise the allegation …”

Dowling Neylan initially went after its former employees for about $1.5 million but amendments made this month revealed that figure had risen.

The company claimed it would lose income from not being able to provide services and that its value diminished to the extent that there was a loss of goodwill because the exclusivity of its confidential information had been reduced.

It also claimed Noosa Estate Agents got a leg up thanks to the allegations.

“Noosa Estate Agents would quickly establish itself in competition against Hillsurf PTY LTD without having to spend the time otherwise necessary to develop a database of contacts and property information and would gain profit from the real estate agent services which at the time of this pleading and subject to further disclosure and breaches is $805,475,” Dowling Neylan’s amended statement of claim said.

Ms Russell said nothing amended in the claim changed the position of Noosa Estate Agents.

“It’s my clients’ position that they are confident in their defence,” she said.

“If it goes to trial, so be it.

“We hope this can be settled commercially and sensibly.”

Mr Neylan said he didn’t wish to comment on the matter while it was before the court.