Estate agent burns down £1.5m home as he prepares for house viewings after freak bed sheet accident

A real estate agent set fire to a £1.5 million home in a beautiful Sydney suburb as he prepared for a house viewing.

Julie Bundock, an agent from Sydneyhad thrown damp bedding on a shelf next to a wall-mounted lamp – which she then turned on.

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Bundock told A court how she had prepared the £1.5 million house for a viewing when she noticed that the current tenants had left damp bedding on the deck for it to dry.

The court heard how she collected the sheets and threw them on a shelf in a downstairs room before switching on the light on the wall.

Within twenty minutes the building was on fire. Not long after, the house and all its contents were destroyed.

The property’s owner, Peter Alan Bush, and the four tenants whose belongings were destroyed by the fire have taken Bundock to court over the incident.

It has since emerged that after the fire, Bundock told Bush, “Oh my God Pete, I think I burned your house down.”

Bush added that she went on to say, “I was cleaning up.

“I gathered some sheets drying on the porch and threw them on a free-standing metal shelf in the bedroom under the stairs.

“I just put them there, Pete, right against the light on the wall. I think that’s what started the fire.

After hearing all the evidence against her, the case’s chief judge, David Hammerschlag, ruled that Bundock was “actively” responsible for causing the fire.

He claimed that she was also liable for the resulting damages to the owner and tenants.

Judge Hammerschlag ruled that Bundock’s employer, Domain Residential Northern Beaches, must pay Bush £380,142 for the loss of his home.

Domain Residential Northern Beaches was also ordered to pay £62,348 to the four tenants whose belongings were destroyed.

The judge also found that Bundock exhibited aggressive and uncooperative behavior while she was in court.

Judge Hammerschlag said: “Her evidence was clearly colored by a heightened sense that she had caused the catastrophe.”

Bundock’s employers tried to argue that Bush and the tenants also contributed to the fire by failing to warn the agency that the board would heat up due to the light.

The court rejected this decision.

Judge Hammerschlag said: “The argument is made in the context where neither plaintiff could possibly or even remotely imagine that Bundock could have done what she did.

“There was no occasion that could reasonably have required the proposed disclosure. Bundock acted of his own accord. Her actions were the sole cause of the damage.”

Judge Hammerschlag added: “It is obvious that a fire can be caused by placing or throwing bed linen against a burning light.

“That risk was clearly foreseeable, and Bundock should have known.”

Domain Residential Northern Beaches has also been ordered to pay interest on the remaining £442,910 owed to Bush.

This is not the first time someone has accidentally set a house on fire in Australia.

In 2019, a woman came out Perth told her how she was doing accidentally set her father’s house on fire after lighting a scented candle in her bedroom.

Fortunately, she and her father quickly escaped the fire, but her two rabbits tragically died in the flames.

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