The Situation: We often see disputes between family members, where the family members not necessarily have the same view on what they agreed to. When these disputes relate to real estate property, things can get messy. Not only is there a question as to who pays the mortgage, but also as to who is entitled to reside in the property. Even if parties agree to sell the property and then argue as to who gets what percentage of the sale proceeds, the process can take up to years which is time consuming, stressful and costly for all parties involved.

We appeared on behalf of a defendant in District Court proceedings where the plaintiff claimed that they had an interest in equity in a property solely owned by our client. The claim was filed following our client providing Notice to Leave to the plaintiff under the RTRAA. The plaintiff asked the Court for an order effectively preventing our client to progress the RTRAA process and preventing our client from dealing with their own property.

We successfully argued that the plaintiff’s position was untenable and unfairly prejudicial to our client, who had to continue paying the mortgage for his own property without being able to have access to his property, or do anything with it, especially where the plaintiff was not making any current payments, whether it be by way of rent or by way of security for costs. The Court agreed with our submissions and not only made an Order that parties finalise their pleadings and provide disclosure to each other within a month and a half, attend and participate in a mediation within 2 months, and if unsuccessful, attend a 3 day hearing within 3 months of the Order, the Court also ordered that the plaintiff place into our Trust Account a weekly payment for security for costs.

The Result: A win for our client. The matter settled at mediation on commercial terms and our client was able to sell the property and move on with their lives.

As every case is different, the cases reported here cannot be taken as an indication of a similar outcome being likely in your case, and these reports are not to be taken as legal advice about your particular situation.