Sydney Metro and Transport for NSW has received gazettal to acquire land in Westmead, Parramatta, Sydney Olympic Park, North Strathfield, Burwood North and Five Dock as part of the multimillion-dollar Sydney Metro West project — however affected land owners said the process was “more like robbery at gunpoint”, rather than negotiations for fair compensation.

Small and medium business-owners have dubbed the gazettal as a “day of reckoning for Sydney businesses”, claiming Sydney Metro was undercutting them in the valuation of their land or shop relocation to retain profits.

Land Acquisition lawyer David Newhouse said the government’s release of gazettal notices in Burwood, Clyde and Five Dock revealed more than half of all business land acquisitions remain unresolved.

He said 76 businesses and properties were gazetted in those suburbs.

“I have never seen so many properties and businesses not reach agreement by an acquiring authority in 20 years of practice,” Mr Newhouse said. “Now these businesses must wait for another two months for the Valuer-General to make a decision.

“Sydney Metro needs to provide these owners with an explanation as to why so many matters have been referred to the Valuer General.”

The acquisition specialist said the process had been “dragging on for 18 months”, and for many, it had been a tough time taking a financial and emotional toll on families trying to put food on the table as they navigate unfair acquisitions.

“Some businesses need to plan many months in advance to move and cannot do so until they know how much the Valuer-General is giving them,” he said.

“Investors whose property are taken for a major project and later repurchase another property are now worse off under the current law, as they have to pay stamp duty all over again under the recent changes — the NSW government is acquiring their property for a major project and then taxing them again for repurchasing a property.”

Parramatta Rd, Burwood property owner Maria Marino said she considered the process endured with Sydney Metro to be like “highway robbery”.

“Sydney Metro came to us just over a year ago telling us they were willing to negotiate on the value of the site,” Ms Marino said. “We weren’t considering selling at that stage, however, they told us we had no option but to let them acquire the land.”

Aware of plans slated to transform the precinct off Parramatta Rd into a mixed-use, high density residential precinct — with the construction of a 20-storey residential tower neighbouring her property — Ms Marino said she and her family had already been approached regarding the sale of the prime real estate.

“But when Sydney Metro made their offer on land value compensation, it was just 40 per cent of what developers had put on the table,” she said. “Government representatives promised they were going to be fair and were open to negotiations and they were reassuring that we would get appropriate compensation but that hasn’t happened. 

“We were told, after a year of negotiations in good faith, that they were only willing to increase the offer by one dollar.”

The Parramatta Rd landowner said dealing with the Sydney Metro team had been “traumatising”.

“We are being robbed, right now, this is highway robbery,” she said. “They are not considering people’s livelihood because this whole process has disgusting.

“It would have been less traumatising if they had come in and stole it a gunpoint.”

Mirroring the experience of Ms Marino and her family, Clyde business owner Endree Saad said the government disregarded — and “questioned the credibility” — of independent valuations conducted in response to Sydney Metro offers for compensation.

Mr Saad said when independent valuations had been submitted by his lawyer to the government, Sydney Metro representatives told him they had “passed my forensic accountant’s claim around the room and laughed at it”.

“The issue we have here is they haven’t compensated us because we don’t agree with the valuation — but the government also want us to pay rent as soon as possible,” Mr Saad said. “I have been looking for weeks for a suitable replacement for our businesses in Clyde but there is nothing available.”

Meanwhile, Ranko (Jack) Jakovljevic said the government had offered him “less than half” of what a developer had offered for his Parramatta Rd property for Metro acquisition.

“Our independent valuation found the property was worth at least $700,000 more than what Sydney Metro put on the table,” he said. “We weren’t looking to sell the property — we’d still like to keep it — I have owned it for more than a decade.”

Mr Jakovljevic described the negotiation process as “brief and one-sided”.

“We didn’t get to stress our concerns around the value offer made by the government,” he said. “We don’t know what this means for us, now that has occurred and we are sending out valuation to the Valuer-General.”

A Sydney Metro spokesman said the department “was able to reach a mutually agreed settlement in the majority of cases”.

“Since October 2019, Sydney Metro has maintained regular contact with affected property owners and tenants,” he said. “This involved ongoing meetings and correspondence throughout the property acquisition program with owners’ and tenants’ appointed property valuers and legal representatives, with a view to try and reach a negotiated agreement on compensation in accordance with the Land Acquisition (Just Terms Compensation) Act 1991.”