Lake Munmorah Residential Resort landlords cost couple sale of home

A row over an awning and a garden bed has managed to derail the sale of a Lake Munmorah house twice, and now the courts have intervened.

Lake Munmorah Residential Resort has been told to butt out of the sale of a resident’s home.

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The landlords of an over-50s resort at Lake Munmorah have been told to butt out of the sale of one of its resident’s homes after their interference twice cost a couple more than $400,000.

On March 29, Lake Munmorah Residential Resort was ordered by the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal to “not interfere” in the sale of Brian and Beverley Welch’s home and pay the couple more than $14,000 in lost interest and site fees.

The court found the landlords meddled twice in the sale of the Welch’s home, after telling potential buyers there was a non-compliant awning and garden beds at the site which would have to be removed.

The Welch’s had lived at the resort since 2006, moving out in July 2018 due to health reasons and placing the house for sale.

The Residential Resort caters for over 55s.

The court found they constructed an awning at the site, after receiving verbal agreement from the landlords, however no notice of completion was lodged with council.

In December 2016, the former Wyong Council advised Lake Munmorah Residential Resort that there were numerous homes with awnings or “paradise rooms” where no notice of completion had been lodged with the council, and rules were changed at the resort to ensure this was remedied in the future.

In May 2018, the Welch’s accepted an offer on their home, however after the purchasers had a meeting with the resort operators they withdrew their application.

The court found they pulled out as they found the operators to have a “condescending and patronising attitude towards them”. The resort denied these allegations.

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It was a case of deja vu in October 2018, where the next potential purchasers also withdrew their application after a meeting with the operators.

The court found the operators of the resort did not take any action regarding the issues of the non-compliant awning and garden bed until the Welch’s put their home up for sale.

“The Tribunal concludes that in threatening not to enter into a new site agreement until non- compliance issues were addressed, and in insisting that the prospective homeowners address the noncompliance issues as a condition of any new agreement, the Operator interfered in the sale of the applicants’ home,” the finding states.

The Tribunal ordered the report pay the couple $6671.71 for the site fees they paid between June 2018 to February 2019, along with $7585 for lost interest.