A legal battle is brewing over Passy, the palatial former abode of incarcerated former MP Eddie Obeid.
Documents filed in the District Court show that his wife, Judy, 82, is suing the purchaser, a company run by early childcare supremo Charles Assaf, for repayment of a $250,000 loan.
Eddie and Judy Obeid leaving the NSW Supreme Court in 2020.Credit: Renee Nowytarger
Assaf, 55, who is developing a childcare centre and sporting facilities on the site, is countersuing the Obeids for almost $34,000 in unpaid rent.
Obeid was a Labor backbencher in 1999, when the Hunters Hill mansion, on 4200 square metres of level land, was purchased in his wife’s name for $2.9 million.
Built in 1854 for the French consul, Passy was bought by Assaf’s Montessori Education and Sports for $11.5 million in July 2020. Settlement took place three months later.
In 2011, the Obeids had approval for $2.25 million worth of upgrades to the property, which included moving the pool and increasing the size of an underground car park from eight car spaces to nine. The plans were shelved with the advent of the explosive 2012 Independent Commission Against Corruption into a corrupt coal deal that delivered $30 million to the family and later resulted in the family patriarch, Eddie, being jailed.
Colette and Charles Assaf, whose company bought the Hunters Hill home in July 2020 for $11.5million.Credit: Facebook
According to Judy Obeid’s statement of claim, on the day of settlement, the Obeids agreed to lend Assaf’s company $250,000 which would be repaid a year later on the condition that the Obeids had complied by providing the necessary development applications and compliance certificates.
The Obeids claim that on the day of settlement, October 23, 2020, Joseph Georges, a real estate agent they claim was acting for Assaf, gave him a USB and a manila folder containing all the relevant documents. Georges went through all the documents with Assaf at his Woolwich home, says Judy Obeid.
However, Assaf says no USB or manila folders were provided by Georges at this time or at any other time. He said that just before the sale in July 2020, Georges provided him with poor-quality copies of plans but no documents stamped by either the council or a private certifier.
Assaf also said in his filed defence that Georges was the Obeids’ real estate agent, not his.
Former NSW Labor politician Eddie Obeid, currently in jail, at his former house Passy. Credit: Christopher Pearce
The Herald has previously revealed that Georges has acted as a front for the Obeids, including the family’s secret interest in the Elizabeth Bay marina.
In 2013, the ICAC heard that Georges acted as a front for the Obeids in a crooked coal deal that netted the Obeid family $30 million.
Georges initially told the corruption inquiry he had no business interests with the Obeid family, but later admitted both he and the Obeids were shareholders in a company granted an exploration licence.
“That answer was false, wasn’t it?” counsel assisting the commissioner, Geoffrey Watson, SC, asked.
Joseph Georges (centre) leaves the ICAC inquiry in 2013 after being questioned on his connection to the Obeids.Credit: Rob Homer
“Yes,” Georges replied.
“It was a lie?” Watson suggested.
“Yes,” Georges replied.
In his cross-claim, Assaf alleges the Obeids lived in Passy rent-free for a year. In August 2021, he told their son, Paul, they had to be out by October 23, 2021 so work on the site could start.
Paul told him his father “was not in a physical or mental condition to move residences, given the legal disputes he was involved in” and his mother was “stressed” and couldn’t move either, the court documents claim.
As it happened, Eddie Obeid did vacate the premises on the due date owing to being jailed on that day for misconduct in public office. His family stayed until December.
Assaf is refusing to repay the $250,000, claiming he couldn’t get a compliance certificate for the first stage of the works, demolition and excavation because the Obeids were still in residence when the loan was due to be repaid.
He is also suing over the $4000 per week rent the Obeids agreed to pay, but haven’t.
The matter will return to court in June.
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