Coronavirus chaos could cause Aussie triathlon champ Emma Carney to lose home
Emma Carney’s world champion efforts in the triathlon made her a sporting hero for many budding Aussie athletes. But despite the wins, she’s not exempt from coronavirus’ carnage. In fact, she’s in a worse boat than many of us. Here’s why.
Confidential
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Former Aussie World Champion Triathlete and commentator Emma Carney has been threatened with being forced to sell her home over $33,000 owed to a family law firm following a dispute with her ex-husband.
The two-time world champion says she had entered a debt agreement with legal firm, Mills Oakley, over outstanding fees which involved the payment of the first instalment for $20,000 this Friday. She agreed to pay the remaining $13,000 over the next three months.
But the high performance triathlon coach and commentator, now a single mother to 10-year-old son Jack, says the majority of her employment has dried up as a result of the coronavirus and she will struggle to make ends meet.
As a result, she sent a letter to the firm on Saturday asking that the debt agreement be frozen for six months.
“I have every intention of paying the debt back, but I’m a single mum and I’ve just lost pretty much all my work,” Carney says.
“Financially I don’t know what to do, because I am not sure if I even qualify for a government handout because I do not have a ’typical’ occupation. I have applied to my bank to have my home loan frozen under financial hardship.”
In the letter to Mills Oakley partner Adam Lunn Carney stated: “Please understand I am not trying to avoid the requirements of the payment plan, but circumstances resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic are unprecedented and could never have been predicted by either parties at the time of the agreement being reached.”
In an email sent to Carney yesterday, Mr Lunn said the firm would not agree to her proposal.
“We have already significantly compromised our long standing claim against you for outstanding fees,” he said.
“As I have pointed out previously, we are aware that you have significant equity in your residence. You are not, by any definition, unable to pay your debts. You are in a much better position for someone to be in to meet their debts than many of our other clients whose income has effectively dried up and who have no capital that they can liquidate to meet their obligations.”
“We expect the first instalment under our agreement to be paid on or before 31 March 2020 and for the subsequent instalments to be paid on or before the respective due dates. If we do not receive payment, we will enforce our rights.”
Mr Lund refused to comment on the matter when contacted by the Herald Sun.
“I don’t comment about matters in relation to clients,” he said.
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