Bringing the fight to the Courts - Futura Condo

I'll be compiling a new series of information that might be useful for minority owners/objectors. They will go under the label - "Going to Court" and will provide details of reasons why objectors are bringing their cases to court or STB for mediation, who are the lawyers representing the minorities, etc.

Now bearing in mind that only one en bloc has been rejected from collective sale by STB, this may be seen by many as a futile gesture or even a waste of time. But one must remember:-

1. Almost all collective sales nowadays have not reached the full 100% consensus (with many going into expressions of interest because they have not even reached 80%). That means there's a lot of minority owners, people who are not happy with the sale of their homes for whatever reasons.
2. The news will almost never report objections made by minority owners for every en bloc done. Rather, it'll be the juicy 'news-worthy' ones that make the headlines. Judging by recent reports of the heavy overload of work on the part of the STB, it appears there are increasing objections made for en bloc sales.
3. Remember the Waterfront View couple that brought their fight all the way to High Court. Even though they lost, the landmark rulings by STB and the Courts on the definition of financial loss clarified the situation for many. The battle now, from what I can see, is on the grounds of what constitutes 'good faith'.
   

So let's start the ball rolling with the spaceship condo that I liked so much:-

Estate: Futura Condominium, Leonie Hill Road
Stage: STB approved sale 23/5/07, Appeal to Court on 20/7/07 before Justice Woo Bih Li
Party: 7 minority owners represented by Henry Heng Gwee Nam of Tan Peng Chin LLC
Majority Lawyer: Mr Matthew Saw of Lee & Lee
Reason: Deal not done in good faith.
Details: Within 3 hrs on 23/10/06, RP reduced from $291m to $287.3. No land survey conducted; No minutes kept of SC meetings; No owners' meeting called before RP reduction. STB failed to take into account allegation that SC failed to discharge its obligations. Reduced RP was unauthorised.

Tags: minority owners, objectors, court, stb hearing, stb mediation, collective sale, collective sales, condo, en bloc, en-bloc, en-bloc sale, enbloc, enbloc sale, property, real estate, singapore