Owners of a mobile home park are suing a lawyer and realtor who helped them buy their Kamloops property over what they claim was due diligence negligence.
Named in the suit launched by Kamloops R.V. & Mobile Home Park Ltd. and the holding company J.S. & Helen Holdings Ltd. are New Westminster-based Hwang & Co. Law Corp., lawyer Michael S.I. Hwang and realtor James Lee and N.R.S. Westburn Realty Ltd., which does business as Coldwell Banker Westburn Realty.
The plaintiffs allege in a December 31 notice of civil claim that they paid the property’s then-owner, 0343936 B.C. Ltd., $3.5 million on March 31, 2008.
Several days later, Hwang received a letter from the City of Kamloops, which stated that the condition of the property was not as it was represented by the vendor, Jo Ho Lee, to the plaintiffs, according to the plaintiffs’ notice of civil claim.
“The response received from the City of Kamloops after completion would have caused the plaintiffs to not complete,” notes the notice of civil claim.
Since completion, the plaintiffs claim that they have had to deal with a sewage system that is defective, a water line and system that is “grossly defective,” and a “calamitous water leak at the site of a pipe carrying city water into the park.”
Plaintiffs have had to provide bottled water to tenants during times when the water is down, according to the notice of civil claim.
Other expenses allegedly have included rebuilding a damaged road, restoring embankments and repairing fences.
Further work is not permitted by the City of Kamloops until city staff are provided with site surveys, geotechnical reports, work permits and other documentation, according to the notice of civil claim.
The plaintiffs claim that they now face the prospect of being fined $10,000 per day by the city unless they provide the documentation.
“In its present condition, even after having spent several hundred thousand dollars, the most the plaintiffs have been offered for the park was $1.3 million, well below the outstanding mortgage used to finance its acquisition, and foreclosure is a likely result,” the plaintiffs allege.
No statement of defence had been filed by press time. None of these allegations has been proven in court.
