Former store operator sues Toombul Shopping Centre owner over water damaged goods
The operator of a store that used to trade in Brisbane’s flood-ravaged Toombul Shopping Centre has sued the centre owner over stock allegedly damaged by ceiling leaks.
Police & Courts
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The operator of a gift and homewares store that used to trade in a flood-ravaged shopping centre in Brisbane’s north has sued the centre owner claiming nearly $300,000 in damages for loss of stock and inability to trade due to leaks before the flood.
The trustee for Jossy Thomman Family Trust, trading as Elite Handcrafts Gifts and Homewares (Elite Handcrafts) has filed a claim in the District Court in Brisbane against Mirvac Real Estate Pty Ltd and two other related corporate entities which ran the Toombul Shopping Centre.
West End-based Elite Handcrafts filed the claim for $291,000 in damages on February 2, seeking compensation for “loss of stock and inability to trade due to the stock being damaged” and includes waterlogged items and damages to shelving and display racks.
“Although the flood occurred and greatly affected the premises, the damages on the plaintiffs stock and the trading premises occurred prior to the flood,” the claim states.
“The loss suffered by the plaintiff was only exacerbated by the flood damage and not borne from it,” the claim states.
Elite Handcrafts alleges that before the February 27, 2022 flood, which caused the Toombul centre to cease trading, the ceiling of the store “leaked in four different places and was a reoccurring problem for his store” since he began trading from the store in 2021.
The company alleges Mirvac Real Estate’s cost assessor, Proclaim Management Solutions, deemed the damage to his Elite Handcrafts store to “be due to the 2022 Eastern Australian floods”.
But Elite Handcrafts alleges Mirvac “failed to have regard to the original damage of the ceiling leak which was communicated time and time again prior to the floods”.
Elite Handcrafts claims they told “the Toombul Shopping Centre Management about leakage from the ceiling during wet and rainy conditions”, and he also told Mirvac Real Estate Pty Ltd about the leaks “personally and verbally” between November 2021 and January 2022, the claim states.
“In or about November 2021 a female maintenance manager informed the plaintiff that the ceiling will be repaired and provided a bucket for the plaintiff to catch the raindrops on an interim basis,” the claim states.
“On or about 17 January 2022 the plaintiff communicated to the defendant through text correspondence that the premises had been damaged due to the ongoing torrential rain in the area, beginning in November 2021. This resulted in great damage and loss to his stock,” the claim states.
The claim states that Elite Handcrafts tried to contact Mirvac by phone over several days in January 2022 and he was offered to move to a new store, but he rejected it because it was too small.
Elite asked to be moved to another store but he was “never relocated”, the claim states.
The case is in its early stages and no defence is yet filed, nor is it due to be filed.
No date has been set for hearing.
The Courier-Mail has contacted Elite Handcrafts and Mirvac for comment.
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