‘Intimidated and scared:’ Shuswap realtor harassed by senior

Shuswap realtor Jessica Klikach didn’t think anything of it when she took on a new client and listed their parents’ home.

It was the summer of 2024, and she met the client and put the property up for sale.

“And then all of a sudden, it started to get really strange,” Klikach told iNFOnews.ca.

The client told her to contact Chris Mulvagh, who she found out had recommended her.

“I’ve never met this person in my life, this Chris person. And all of a sudden, the client is telling me that I need to talk to this Chris person,” Klikach said.

The realtor told her client that she didn’t have a contractual obligation with Mulvagh and that her legal obligation was to her client.

“He called me and I just told him, I said, ‘Look, you’re not a part of this. You’re not on the paper. You’ve got nothing to do with the property. If you want to give your friend advice, that’s your prerogative,” Klikach said.

Then things got weird.

“He started very aggressively calling me and messaging me online, and text messaging me, and emailing me and then slandering my name on Facebook and slandering my name on Google,” Klikach said.

Over a one-week period Mulvagh contacted the realtor 197 times – calling, texting, emailing and messaging.

“I was intimidated and scared,” she said.

Mulvagh wanted money for the referral. He asked for $30,000 – far more than the commission Klikach would get for selling the property.

He told her he knew where she worked, and he was going to “find her.”

“I’m a strong individual…(but) it was pretty intimidating,” Klikach said.

Klikach went to the RCMP and had her company’s lawyer send Mulvagh a cease and desist letter. She left town for a couple of weeks.

The RCMP visited him a couple of times.

However, even with the police turning up on his doorstep it didn’t change.

“He persisted… it was terrifying,” she said.

On July 22, Christopher Thomas Mulvagh, born 1959, appeared in a Salmon Arm courtroom, having been charged with criminal harassment.

Klikach said she found the whole situation very unsettling.

“I was losing sleep, and I was looking over my shoulder a lot more… I also felt like I needed to protect myself… I put up cameras at my house,” Klikach said. “I’m a strong woman. I lift weights, I was an athlete for a long period of time. I don’t really think that I look particularly meek, so I don’t know why I got (targeted).”

The realtor has never actually met Mulvagh and knows nothing about him. According to his social media, he’s from Ottawa and appears to have moved to Sicamous in the last few years. He’s retired and heads south for the winter.

Klikach has been working in the real estate industry for 15 years and jokes that part of her job is meeting strangers in strange places.

But in all that time, she’d never had anything untoward happen.

“I’m happy to talk about this, mostly because I think a lot of people don’t realize a lot of the risks that realtors take,” she said.

While the situation was unnerving, Klikach says she’s put it behind her, and moved on.

In court, Mulvagh, who is in his mid-60s, pleaded not guilty to the charge of criminal harassment and instead agreed to be put under a peace bond. 

The restraining order prevents him from coming within 200 metres of Klikach, or having contact with her. He was also ordered to remove any social media posts he made about the realtor.

He’ll also have to undergo counselling, but only if a probation officer recommends it. If he breaches any of the conditions, he can be charged again, and possibly jailed if he’s then convicted.