A mediation hearing before the Strata Titles Board opens today

A mediation hearing before the Strata Titles Board opens today, with the task of trying to bring together warring neighbours who have sold their apartments at Horizon Towers on Leonie Hill en bloc for $500 million.

Far from coming together, the various sides have hired top-notch lawyers to fight for them. The mediation is set to last for two days, and if there is no agreement possible, the case will go for a full hearing before the Strata Titles Board.

The dispute goes back to January, when almost 84 per cent of owners signed the agreement to sell Horizon Towers to Hotel Properties and two foreign funds for $500 million. That meets the legal requirement of more than 80 per cent of owners assenting to a sale in the case of properties more than 10 years old.

It means each owner of the condo’s 199 units will get about $2.3 million, and the 11 penthouse owners will receive sums of at least $4 million, rising to $6.28 million for the largest unit, of 890 sq m.

A group of 42 unhappy owners who had consented to the sale has called for an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to remove the sales committee which negotiated and finalised the collective sale. The 42 are calling for a new sales committee to be elected, and they have hired the Wong Partnership law firm to advise them.

A Wong Partnership spokesman confirmed to BT that ‘it is advising some of the subsidiary owners who would like the sales committee changed’.

The 42 say they are not satisfied with the sales committee’s performance, and complain about the committee not canvassing the views of the rest of the owners prior to the sale, despite the improved market conditions. The unhappy group members pointed out that nine months had passed from the time the sales committee had been elected to negotiate the sale and its eventual agreement.

‘Before signing the option, it would be in their (sales committee) interests as well, and since there was a window of opportunity, they could have held a meeting with the owners again and see if we could have concluded a better agreement,’ said one of the 42 owners.

But law firm Drew & Napier, which is handling the collective sale of Horizon Towers, has written a letter to advise the owners that an EGM would not have the power to remove the current sales committee.

And even if a new sales committee is appointed, nothing significant can be or needs to be done by the new sales committee which will have a bearing on the proceedings before the Strata Title Board, the lawyers’ letter said.

Jimmy Yim, senior counsel at Drew & Napier, told BT that in his opinion, an EGM does not have the power to remove the sales committee and since it is now at an advanced stage, there is ‘little more the sales committee can do’.

It is not these two sides alone which need mediation. There are those who have always stood out against the sale, and three of them, including one penthouse owner, have hired Tan Kok Quan Partnership to represent them at the hearing.

Another penthouse owner, Wong Siew Fang, who has been bitterly opposed to the sale from the very beginning, is doing without lawyers and will be presenting her own case at the hearing.

Ms Wong said she will argue that the apportionment of the sales proceeds was not equitable.

‘When you buy property, you pay according to area,’ said Ms Wong who bought her home in 1983. She will get $4 million for her 493 sq m penthouse while those owning 220 sq m will get $2.3 million.

Many of the penthouse owners are resigned to their plight being disregarded just because they are seen as millionaires.

But one question has been answered already. One bit of legal advice sought was whether going against an en bloc sale would somehow be construed as being ‘anti Singapore’ which could in some way see some of those involved lose their permanent residence status.

They have been instructed that in Singapore, ‘you’re entitled to exercise your commercial rights’.

Source: The Business Times, 29 May 2007