Horizon Towers owners ready to move on

Source : Sunday Times - 5 Apr 2009

Majority owners at Horizon Towers are considering their next step following last Thursday’s surprise decision by the Court of Appeal to throw out the collective sale.

The owners will meet their lawyers on April 16 to discuss their options, including the possibility of suing the original sale committee for breaching its duties.

The committee bore the brunt of severe criticism in the Court of Appeal ruling.

It cited the committee’s hasty agreement to sell Horizon Towers, its failure to follow up on a higher offer, and its negligence in not disclosing a possible conflict of interest.

This centred on two owners who bought additional units just before they were appointed to the estate’s sale committee.

The ruling brings to an end the long saga of the collective sale of the Leonie Hill estate.

The sale was mooted in October 2005 and the owners agreed to a reserve price of $500 million the following year.

A deal was signed in January 2007 when the majority owners accepted a price of just below $850 per sq ft of gross floor area from Hotel Properties and its two partners.

The 199 owners of the 99-year leasehold estate would each have pocketed about $2.3 million, while the 11 penthouse owners would each have received $4 million to more than $6 million.

A series of court challenges followed. Some majority owners turned against the deal when they saw how the soaring market had made their sale price look like a giveaway.

The property market has since slumped.

A handful of the minority owners who objected to the sale fought their case all the way to the Court of Appeal.

Meanwhile, some residents had gone on to buy second properties on the assumption the deal would likely go through, and are now feeling short-changed.

But lawyers said that owners will find it hard to make a case in court as it was the individual’s decision to buy before the sale was signed and sealed.

An owner who spoke on condition of anonymity said she had bought a second property because she thought she had to move out.

The housewife said she will live at Horizon Towers and will rent out the other flat.

She added that legal action against the sale committee was ‘one of the options’ some residents had talked about.

But they also felt the chances of success were slim because of certain clauses in the collective sale agreement which may indemnify the committee.

Then there is the question of cost.

Each majority owner has had to cough up $15,000 for legal fees so far, said the owner.

This puts the total cost for the 173 who signed the sale agreement at about $2.6 million.

As the minority owners won the case, it is likely that the majority owners will have to foot their legal bill too - reported to be about $1.5million for owners who fought all the way to the Court of Appeal.

Reclaiming some of these legal fees will be discussed at the April 16 meeting.

One sale committee member, Ms Mamata Kapildev Dave, said the committee will honour the court’s decision and is now waiting for its ruling on how to award costs.

Another owner, Mr Bharat Mandloi, 50, spoke of the mood in the estate: ‘The general feeling is people are tired of this. I don’t think people are in the mood to point fingers. Everyone’s thinking, ‘Thank God it’s finally over.’