Residents take legal action over property compensation

Ten homeowners have launched legal action against the State Government after their properties were forcibly acquired for the expansion of Randwick’s health and education precinct.

Dimitrios Hatzitoulousis sitting on his back fence with Prince of Wales Hospital in the background last year. His home has now been demolished and he’s joined nine other residents legal action claiming the State Government paid below market value for their homes. Picture: John Appleyard

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Ten homeowners have launched legal action against the State Government after their properties were forcibly acquired for the expansion of Randwick’s health and education precinct.

The proceedings, lodged by residents on Eurimbla Ave and Botany St, argue compensation offers they received for their homes were significantly below market value — in one case $500,000 short of assessments by independent valuers.

Dimitrios Hatzitoulousis is one of 10 Randwick residents who have taken the State Government to court over the compensation for their now demolished properties. Mr Hatzitoulousis’ former Eurimbla Ave home is in the background. Picture: John Appleyard

Their properties, now bulldozed to make way for the $720 million Randwick health and education redevelopment, were among 92 homes to the west of Prince of Wales Hospital acquired by Health Infrastructure in June 2017.

Randwick councillor Phillipa Veitch wants the council to support a public inquiry into the acquisition process.

The hospital expansion will be discussed at Tuesday’s council meeting.

Those to receive an acquisition notice through their letterbox included Dimitrios Hatzitoulousis.

Now living in a spare room with family members, the former Eurimbla Ave resident is claiming the compensation offer he received by government valuers was 17 per cent below market value.

Mr Hatzitoulousis said he was “not against the redevelopment of the hospital” but “the way residents had been treated”, claiming “we were deceived out of the true value of our home”.

Part of the $720 million Prince of Wales Hospital redevelopment as seen from Botany St, Randwick.

Like many, he said the sum offered had left him “unable to buy an equivalent home in Randwick.”

A Health Infrastructure spokeswoman declined to comment on the legal proceedings, but said expanding the campus to the west was the “best way to deliver high quality co-located clinical services”.

Eurimbla Ave residents Dimitrios Hatzitoulousis and David Farrell with Randwick Councillor Philipa Veitch walk past a row of fenced off homes in October 2018. The homes have now been demolished. Picture: John Appleyard

Of the block of homes acquired, plans show the southern section will become an acute services building, while the northern half will have a “health services” and “health-related education, training and research facility”.

Since negotiations took place, the government has reformed its property acquisition process with a pledge to create a “fairer, more balanced and more transparent process from start to finish”.

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