Monday, April 25, 2005

Are we there yet?

So here we are at the end of my tale. Better give a very quick recap for you.

We bought a house, off the plan, on a nice little section.
After 3 years, we only had a frame and a roof and then the developers' company was put into liquidation after he had spent all our money and a whole heap lent to him from a finance company.

The finance company took over and, due to the extraordinary losses that they incurred, all of the creditors, us included, ended up with nothing.

We had a caveat over the land which we though protected us as we had a financial interest in the section.

The finance company then told us that they were transfering the whole project back to one of the original developers from the failed company.....

Net result:
Creditors = Nil
Finance Company = $few million
Dodgy Developer = FOC

We were told in February 2005 that the Finance Co had no interest in dealing with us and since we were not prepared to meet their demands, they were going to court to remove our Caveat. Our lawyer advised that this process was expensive (about $20k) and that there was no guarantee of us winning.

As I've said several times, said Finance Company were not acting illegally, just unethically, in our opinion. We felt strongly that the court would find in our favour as there was a strange deal going on here with the creditors effectively wiped-out to cover someone elses losses. Nonetheless, we could not afford to lose any more money and had no choice but to bow out.

The caveat was removed. Our contract was gone. All rights were lost.

So ends our story but there is more....

We found another house and have moved on but there are still a group of people still affected by all this. What, where, I hear you say? Well, there are a group of existing residents around the development who have also endured 3 years of turmoil as their gardens were ruined and lives disrupted by this whole sorry development.

The landscape, that was once native bush (and was supposed to have stayed native bush), now resembles Mordor....

7 comments:

  1. Don't stop writing Mr Reasonable. I need a few posts of happy family life in your lovely 60s house to get over the trauma!

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  2. Thank you, Martha. Nice tales to follow plus some stories from the poor residents around our old bomb site...

    Sam-boy: Seems to be a bit of a problem in that industry. Time for a new Sheriff in this here town....bowweee bow bow bow...dar dar darrrrrr

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  3. Oooooooooooh, this is that new "cat free" housing estate (UK term) they've built up by Kaiwharwhara isn't it? Isn't it? Is it?

    Bloody place was green-belt until ... well, I just say "builder-friendly council" and say no more.

    Anywho. Mate, I feel for you and your family. I also smile at the amazing way you talk about Mrs R - she sounds very cool person. As do you.

    Well survived.

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  4. And I agree with Martha. No more house building tragedy's and more cool life in Wellington to be blogged.

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  5. Sorry MM. Not in Kaiwharwhara. Life in Welly is sooo good now that we are settled so lots of nice blogs to follow.

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  6. Oh. Bum, thought I was on to it then.

    Good to hear the Happy Mr R is happeniong - as I see already by the latest article.

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  7. MM, all will become clear very soon. Tuesday to be exact.....

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