Wirrina marina boaties threatened with eviction, locked out of berths in escalation of court feud with operator
Boaties have been locked out of their berths and threatened with eviction in the latest chapter of a long-running feud with an embattled marina operator.
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Dozens of boaties have been threatened with eviction and locked out of their berths in an escalation of a long-running feud with the operator of a country marina.
Marina St Vincent management issued default notices to at least 45 berthowners at the Wirrina Cove facility on the Fleurieu Peninsula giving them until Friday to settle bills or their berths would be seized, the District Court heard on Tuesday.
Several berth owners have also had their marina access passes progressively deactivated over the past six weeks for allegedly not paying marina fees.
Berth owner Angus Forbes, who is among litigants suing marina operator New Wave Aerospace, said he was “locked in” the marina on Australia Day after returning from a short sailing trip with his wife.
“We had no problem getting into the marina but when we went to leave, at about midafternoon, we couldn’t get out of the gate,” the 64-year-old said.
He said another berth owner let them out and when he confronted the marina management was told that his access card had been deactivated because they owed money.
He said he disputed they owed money. He said by the end of the day entry rights had been restored.
Mr Forbes said he wrote to the marina’s owner DPTI on Tuesday with safety concerns over the marina’s operation.
“What if there had been a medical emergency on board and nobody was around? ” he told The Advertiser.
“It would be one thing to lock you out but to be locked in is a shocking situation.”
It is the latest episode in an acrimonious legal dispute involving a group of aggrieved berthowners who sued marina operator New Wave Aerospace alleging the company and its director Stephen Lindsay Gordon Marks misappropriated $1.25 million in berth fees.
Mr Marks vehemently denied the claims during a lengthy trial last May. District Court Judge Patrick O’Sullivan said he would hand down his findings in the dispute this Friday.
In November the State Government terminated New Wave Aerospace’s head lease for failing to pay a $200,000 marina dredging bill and launched separate Supreme Court action in December seeking repossession of the marina.
The company is fighting the eviction with another hearing on the matter listed for next month.
Peter Pedler, acting for berthowners, told the District Court on Tuesday the lease termination was leaving his clients and other berthowners in a “state of limbo”.
The District Court hearing centred on argument over New Wave Aerospace’s application to access court held funds to pay the dredging bill.
But no decision was made on that pending outcome of the Supreme Court lease dispute before Justice Trish Kelly.
New Wave Aerospace leases the marina from the State Government, and subsequently subleases the berths to boaties who pay an annual outgoing based on the length of their berths.
Yankalilla Council chief executive Nigel Morris confirmed that the marina owes the council $27,000 for water.