Court Proceedings

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Risland Australia has been successful in its case before the NSW Supreme Court against Bradcorp, after Risland elected not to exercise its option in 2018 to acquire land at North Wilton in South-West Sydney.
Bradcorp took Risland to court.
Bradcorp challenged Risland’s decision that Bradcorp had failed to satisfy a range of conditions precedent to enable the land to be developed.  
The Supreme Court dismissed Bradcorp’s claim, which was taken against Risland, the Chinese backed developer then known as Country Garden.
Bradcorp had owned the land since 1999.
 It is located about 80 kilometres south west of the Sydney CBD.
The court found Bradcorp had failed to satisfy all of the conditions necessary to exercise the option, and that Bradcorp otherwise repudiated the option deed by its own conduct.  
The court case came down to a legal debate on the required time and date, and whether a post 5pm COB advisory was within the required time.
The court even heard legal precedent on birth dates, age, and fractions of the day.
Counsel for Bradcorp claimed one notification was received after 5.00 pm on the required day, so they viewed it as received on the following business day. 
But the Supreme Court judge ruled the cancellation was effective on the required day, 30 November 2018.
Bradcorp will be required to pay damages to Risland which, together with costs and interest charges, is likely to exceed $30 million.
“We are disappointed that Bradcorp was unable to present the land in a way which would have enabled it to be developed in accordance with the required approvals and our vision," a Risland spokesperson said.
“We remain very interested in investing and developing areas around Australia, including the Wilton region”, he concluded.
The proceedings concerned an 870 hectare parcel, currently rural, but is to be developed as part of the expansion of Wilton into a large satellite town.
It was in February 2017 that Bradcorp entered into put and call option agreements over the land with Country Garden.
The aggregate purchase price under the option agreements was $297 million.
Bradcorp purported to exercise the put option early in December 2018, but CG refused to execute the contract of sale, on the ground that conditions precedent to the exercise of the put option had not been satisfied.
Bradcorp claimed damages.
Call option fees of $29.7 million had been paid by CG, and in accordance with the option agreements, $9 million had been released to Bradcorp.
The remaining $20.7 million was held by HWL Ebsworth, the solicitors for Bradcorp on the transaction.
There was a dispute over three conditions including the requirement that the land be rezoned so that at least 5,350 residential lots could be produced by subdivision.
The land was rezoned in November 2018 however there was an issue between the parties on whether the rezoning satisfied the minimum lot requirement.
The second condition concerned an existing mining lease which extended under the land. The condition required that certain rights under the lease be surrendered.
It happened, but the steps to make it happen only took place at the last minute with the dispute on whether it happened in the required time.
Bradcorp had negotiated an agreement with Endeavour to surrender its rights in exchange for payment of $40 million, the court heard.
The third condition concerned access to the property from the Hume Motorway with the parties in dispute also about whether this condition was satisfied.
Bradcorp has issued a press release advising it intends to appeal the judgement.
 
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Risland in win over Bradcorp over abandoned $297 million North Wilton sale

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The County Court of Victoria judge Paul Higham, in sentencing estate agent Paul Pfeiffer to a two-year community corrections order on Friday, said the integrity of the entire real estate profession was “damaged by any rogue practitioner such as yourself”.
The Melbourne real estate agent who misappropriated client money avoided jail.
Paul Pfeiffer, 46, the sole director of Melbourne Deluxe Real Estate, withdrew client money and used it for the company’s purposes between April and June, 2016.
He and his company pleaded guilty to eight counts of fraudulent conversion and one count of fraudulently rendering an account.
The County Court of Victoria was told on Friday that Pfeiffer withdrew money - client deposits on home purchases - from the company’s trust account.
He then used the funds for his business and personal expenditure without  permission.
“The consequential shortfalls were made up from new deposits paid into the trust account. In essence ... you robbed Peter to pay Paul,” Judge Paul Higham said.
Then in July 2016, Pfeiffer told a “stream of untruths and misrepresentations” to the vendor of one of the houses he was selling in “an attempt to hold off the  inevitable day of discovery”.
The vendor then lodged a complaint with Consumer Affairs Victoria, who found deficiencies in his company’s trust account.
A shortfall of more than $69,000 still remains.
Judge Higham noted Pfeiffer had been a talented real estate agent but that “did not translate into a talent for managing a business”.
He said although Pfeiffer had netted more than $200,000 per annum in the two years before the offending, he had the pressure of maintaining an expensive  lifestyle.
“The victims of your offending are not only the vendors, whose deposits you dishonestly applied to your own purposes, but also your entire former profession, whose integrity is damaged by any rogue practitioner such as yourself.”
 
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Rogue deluxe estate agent Paul Pfeffer avoids jail but damages profession

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Meriton's Harry Triguboff has commenced proceedings against the NSW government's transformation arm UrbanGrowth.
It involves grievances around UrbanGrowth excluding Meriton from the tender of two residential super lots in Sydney's north shore.
Mr Triguboff previously sued UrbanGrowth in 2015 for excluding Meriton from the tender of the 1.5-hectare properties at "Lachlan's Line", the northern end of the North Ryde Station Priority Precinct for residential development.
Now Triguboff is going to the courts to gain access to tender information and documents under the Government Information (Public Access) Act after UrbanGrowth allegedly refused access under the Act.
The Lachlan’s Line project was announced by the NSW Government in 2013 as part of the NSW Government’s North Ryde Station Precinct. The new contemporary urban village will provide approximately 2,700 homes for around 5,000 residents.
"UrbanGrowth is responsible to get the best deal for the people of NSW," Harry Triguboff said.
"I would've thought they would welcome the opportunity to show everyone what a good job they are doing," Mr Triguboff said.
The site in question, known as Lachlan’s Line in Macquarie Park, was sold by UrbanGrowth to the Chinese developer, Greenland Investment (Australia) Pty Limited.
The current proceedings come after UrbanGrowth refused to provide any documents in answer to a formal application by Meriton under the Act. 
Meriton's General Counsel, Joseph Callaghan, said the current application was not an attempt to revive the earlier Supreme Court proceedings but about "ensuring a fair and transparent tender process".
The successful bidder of the two lots, Chinese developer Greenland, has applied to join the proceedings to allegedly block Meriton's request for access.
Greenland won the tender offering $190 million. It has since commenced presales at the $800 million 800-apartment project on the combined site known as "nbh". Meriton noted no settlement funds had yet been paid by the developer for the land.
This year two further high density superlots were offered for sale as one package via an expressions of interest campaign through Colliers International.
UrbanGrowth NSW's  second stage land release at Lachlan’s Line included an affordable housing offering which must be purchased by a community housing provider, or a private developer in a joint venture or similar.
Bates Smart had prepared the concept design for around 172 apartments and the third site of 96 affordable housing apartments.
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