Christopher Portante, community relations coordinator with the Delaware Department of State, said the attorney general’s civil division has joined the professional real estate commission’s investigation of Lewes Realty’s handling of money received for seasonal property rentals.

Portante said the attorney general’s involvement in the case is “common protocol and not out of the ordinary.”

The Delaware Real Estate Commission last fall suspended company owner Sieber’s real estate license after an investigation by the state’s Professional Licensure Commission determined the company had failed to pay rental income to property owners in a timely manner.

Some people whose property was managed by the company say the company had failed to pay money owed to rental property owners, in some cases dating back to 2007.

Lewes Realty continues operating with a broker of record other than Sieber heading the company.

Sieber had been scheduled to appear before the real estate commission this month but her attorney, Donald Gouge, requested, and was granted, a continuance to Tuesday, March 16.

Sieber, who said her company handles about 300 seasonal rental properties, has promised to pay all of those who are owed money after she has straightened out the company’s bookkeeping system.

She traces the company’s problems to a period during which she was seriously ill and out of touch with daily operations.

In December, a Justice of the Peace court judge allowed Sieber to enter into an agreement to pay property owner John Constantini $15,000 and allowed a judgment against Sieber in which she is to pay property owner Marylou Wellbrock-Reeves $11,126.