Police called to dramatic stand-off between seller, buyer of Kawana Island mansion

A tense stand-off between the vendors and buyers of a $3.3m waterfront Sunshine Coast home has been caught on camera, with police called to the dispute over who had the right to be on the property, a court has heard.

The $3.3m Kawana Island house on the Sunshine Coast.

Police were called to sort out a tense stand-off between the vendors and buyers of a $3.3m waterfront Sunshine Coast home as the women both recorded each other on their mobile phones while each claiming the right to be there, a court has heard.

In the series of seven videos, all tendered in the Supreme Court in Brisbane, vendor Michelle Susan Britton can be seen to be “demanding” that the buyers Joshua Marc Storey and Samantha Ruth Erskine Storey leave the property on March 4 last year, a court has heard.

Ms Britton, a lawyer who was representing herself in court, claimed that the Storeys had no right to be there, and that they did not have a right to “possession”.

In the video the Storeys can be heard to be asserting their right to “exclusive access”.

Details of the dramatic showdown were revealed by Justice Paul Freeburn in his decision handed down on June 23, ruling that Mr and Mrs Storey are entitled to specific performance of the January 31, 2024 contract to buy the Parrearra home from Ms Britton and husband Andrew John Britton for $3,264,000.

He also threw out Ms Britton’s claim that the Storeys were ever “squatting or trespassing” in the eight-bedroom, four-bathroom mansion.

According to Ms Britton the Storeys are also both legal practitioners.

Public records state that Mrs Storey applied for admission as a solicitor in June this year, but does not yet appear on the roll of solicitors under that name.

Mr Storey works as a lawyer for retirement income giant Challenger Limited in Sydney, the roll states.

In his decision Justice Freeburn highlighted an email from Mr Britton to Ms Britton which refers to possible reasons - such as a chance to get a higher sales price - why Ms Britton wanted to terminate the contract with the Storeys.

“Unfraternally days after you had a better offer come through and tried to cancel the contract and take a new higher offer for the sales,” Mr Britton wrote to his wife.

“The new offer was a significant amount of money higher this would benefit our family immensely. You engaged with many different solicitors and were advised that the contract could not be cancelled,” Mr Britton wrote to his wife in an email, as tendered in court.

The March 4, 2024 confrontation came three weeks after the Brittons claimed the contract was terminated on February 12, 2024 and demanded in a legal letter to the Storeys on February 12 they “remove all belongings and vacate the property within seven days”.

The Sunshine Coast house at the centre of a legal battle between the buyers and sellers.

“In my view, the Brittons’ purported termination on February 12, 2024 was not a valid termination of the contract,” Justice Freeburn decided.

“The Brittons have not validly terminated the contract. I will order that the contract be specifically performed,” he ruled.

The Brittons claimed the Storeys breached the contract when they failed to pay a $35,000 tranche of the $326,000 deposit by February 2, 2024.

But Justice Freeburn found that this alleged breach was not acted on by the Brittons until 10 days later and, in the meantime, the Storeys continued to live in the Parreara house without any protest.

“The Brittons made arrangements for keys and mail to be exchanged, and Ms Britton advised Mr Storey about her attempts to cancel the Airbnb booking,” Justice Freeburn wrote.

“All of that was conduct consistent with the parties proceeding with their bargain. And, in Ms Britton’s own words, there was “no problem at all” with the late payment of the $35,000,” he stated, citing text messages between the pair.

“No problem at all thank you! Hope all is well.” Ms Britton texted Mr Storey on February 4 after he paid the $35,000 late.

Mr Storey told Ms Britton in another text: “we adore this house. Thank you so much for creating it!”

Ms Britton responded: “All good and I am thrilled :) thank you”

Justice Freeburn concluded that: “viewed as a whole, Mr and Ms Britton had elected to affirm the contract”.

The house sale contract stipulated that the Storeys were entitled to “exclusive access” to the property, subject to the Brittons having access to remove their belongings, after payment of the $125,000 first tranche of the deposit on February 2.

Originally published as Police called to dramatic stand-off between seller, buyer of Kawana Island mansion