A string of caveats have been registered against the property where many unfinished Ormiston homes are under the control of receivers.
Property records show nine caveats are registered against 397 Ormiston Rd, Flat Bush owned by DDL Homes Ormiston which is in voluntary administration and receivership. Three mortgagesare also registered against the title.
Neetu Nirvana Ismail, Hua Xiang Homes, Val Residential, Ming Wei NZ, Professional Bricklaying, L S Homes, Jin House NZ, F974 Building and Min & Mei have registered caveats over the address.
Val Residential, incorporated two years ago, is a land development and subdivision business but does not do construction, according to the Companies Office. Meiying Lin of Flat Bush is its director.
Professional Bricklaying is headquartered at Flat Bush and Meihua Zhou of that area in Auckland is its director.
F974 is a residential property operation and development business, also registered at Flat Bush and its director is Julei Sha and Shuquan Xiao.
Main security holder and mezzanine lender Vincent Capital holds a mortgage over the title along with Antje Kroon, a director of Kroons Investments. Kroon has two mortgages over the title.
Questions were put to Calibre about what the caveats might mean. The Herald asked how the receivers viewed such claims over the title, what effects they could have and if settlement of contracts with home owners would be affected.
Vandals hit DDL last year when a 20-tonne digger was used to attack an almost-finished $675,000 home.
One person is concerned about the situation.
Davenports' lawyer Nick Kearney has voiced his professional opinion about the way forward for buyers.
He noticed the caveats, some of which he said were with trade businesses.
Caveats were not normally registered by tradespeople like they were here, he said. It was unusual that such parties would register a caveat against the title of the owner of the land they were working for. Tradespeople usually formed part of the unsecured creditor list, he said, unless the land owner had agreed to it in the contract with the tradespeople.
Caveats existing potentially put blocks between the developer and the home buyers.
DDL's homes at Ormiston.
"The development can't be completed and settlements to buyers can't occur until the caveat holders agree to discharge their claims. They will only do that if they receive the money they claim they are owed," Kearney said.
"Alternatively the receiver might decide that the caveators don't have a valid interest and they can apply for the High Court for the caveats to come off the title."
Kearney said it might be that those who registered the caveats would agree to release them if money is retained at the settlement of the properties. That money would need to be in a trust account of perhaps the lawyers and not be released to Vincent Capital who called in the receivers," he said.
Receiver Neale Jackson of Calibre Partners described a large amount of building work under way and planned at 397 Ormiston Rd when he was appointed recently.
"The developer planned to construct the following on the property at 397 Ormiston Rd: 26 townhouses, which I have been told are largely complete, 17 residential sections and 79 apartments," Jackson said.
Calibre is now assessing the state of the various sites and has transferred all legal work from the two DDL businesses it controls to its owner lawyers, Chapman Tripp.
Buyers have now been told to instruct their lawyers to deal with Chapman Tripp.
Construction of the apartments is less advanced than building work at the 26 townhouses which was nearing completion at the time Calibre were appointed receivers by lender Vincent Capital.
Land Information New Zealand says caveats are a notice or warning that the party has a claim or interest in the land.
