Vancouver Developer Sues Buyers For Backing Out on Condo Pre-Sale Contracts
February 5th, 2009Well surprise surprise. We all know this was coming. Onni has decided to sue buyers who did not complete on pre-sales contracts. There a always numerous angles to look at things from, but in the end there is a contract and that is the end of the story. Buyers need to make sure they understand the contracts they sign and are prepared to live by them.
Now whether this sits well or not is another issue. Developers are greedy when times are good, they have cancelled projects, returned deposits, and resold for more because costs went up. No protection for the buyers in these cases. Now the market has turned and they want to recover losses due to the lower values, again they are the ones that are protected here.
Bottom line, They protect themselves in their contracts and there is little protection for the buyers. Whose fault is this, well unfortunately if a buyer signs the contract who can they really blame. Of course these developers have to remember that times will be good again and I am quite sure there will be many people that remember what is happening now and they may prefer not to deal with some developers. Business 101, treat clients well in good times and bad!
Read more about the Onni example in the Vancouver Sun
February 6th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
I agree, it seems the developers are always protected regardless of the market. I have one that I have to complete on soon, and I have entertained the idea of walking away. Anybody else in the same situation?
March 1st, 2009 at 3:38 pm
Those who harp on that ‘a contract is a contract’ may pass ‘law and order’, but you get a big fat failing grade in social justice. The average person is perhaps too trusting, and unfortunately they are taken advantage of with pre-sale contracts. With all the news about increasing the buyer’s deposit, completed suites looking nothing like the original drawings, and now this, suing their customers who had to walk away for many reasons, including unemployment, the days of line-ups for pre-sales are coming to an end. Which also means the end of money for developers to build. So they’re shooting themselves in the foot.