THEY WANT A SAY
Buyers of Urbancorp homes want to be consulted on the firm’s restructuring,
Purchasers of homes never built want to be consulted on who buys assets during restructuring
Christina Nguyen and John Stevenson are among the disappointed home buyers who will be in court Thursday looking for a say in the restructuring of giant homebuilder Urbancorp.
The couple, who are both studying for master’s degrees, paid a $90,000 deposit on a semi-detached home in Urbancorp’s St. Clair development two years ago, only to learn last spring the builder was being restructured under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act.
They are among the hundreds of ordinary people who want a say in who buys up the Urbancorp assets that are being sold off in the restructuring.
They fear the properties will be sold off to new developers who won’t honour their contracts or return their deposits, which in many cases represent families’ life savings.
“The most important thing is that we get some legal representation that will insert our interests into the negotiations of the bidding. Right now, we are completely locked out,” Nguyen said.
The buyers feel like they are the last in line for consideration among Urbancorp’s creditors that include banks, financial heavyweights and Israeli bond holders.
Their lawyer, Lisa Corne, is asking Justice Frank Newbould to let her firm, Dickinson Wright, represent the buyers in five Urbancorp developments, with the legal bills to be paid out of the Urbancorp estate. The hearing, originally scheduled for next Wednesday, has been moved up.
“This is mostly people who have purchased homes with a view to moving into them with their families and building a life,” Corne said. “At the moment, there isn’t one voice and they don’t have the funds available to retain counsel, and they have a huge financial stake.”
Dickinson Wright is seeking to represent buyers in Urbancorp’s Woodbine, Bayview, St. Clair, Lawrence and Mallow projects. If the court grants the buyers’ legal representation, Corne expects that she would meet with the trustee in the insolvency proceedings, KSV Kofman, and the proposed bidders on the properties to look at whether there’s an opportunity to actually complete the purchase of their homes.
She said she is optimistic the court will grant the home buyers representation.
“That is the right thing to do and the court should recognize that,” she said.
How much that representation achieves for the buyers in the end, however, is still very much unknown, Corne said.
Nguyen and Stevenson, like many Urbancorp buyers, have had their lives upended since learning about the restructuring and subsequent sale of some of the builder’s assets.
They spent every penny of their savings, money from their parents and the proceeds of a condo sale in Nguyen’s family to purchase a four-bedroom home. It was going to be big enough to accommodate their parents for extended stays, particularly Stevenson’s parents, who are dealing with serious health issues and want to be close to Toronto Western Hospital.
The couple was living in his parents’ Oakville home to save money. But the health concerns prompted that home to be sold so they could downsize to a condo. Now Nguyen, 26, and Stevenson, 31, are renting a condo near Dundas and Dufferin Sts.
They expect the rent will devour all the money they managed to save while they were in Oakville.
Where they end up is uncertain. They still want to buy a house, but say they would never consider buying a pre-con- struction home. Depending on where Stevenson gets a job, they’re thinking about Hamilton, where Nguyen is studying health at McMaster University.
“We’re very stressed and overwhelmed by the whole situation. We feel that the legal system is protecting a corporation at the sacrifice of many hundreds of lives,” Nguyen said.
Tarus Fatah, 37, and his wife Amanda purchased an Urbancorp home while they were engaged. It had a basement apartment with a separate entrance where they had hoped his dad would live.
For the time being, they have given up on the $800,000 Urbancorp home in the St. Clair project.
They have paid a deposit on a townhouse near Highway 401 and Weston Rd. Fatah says it’s not his preferred neighbourhood, but it’s half the price and half the size of their original dream home,
“This is mostly people who have purchased homes with a view to moving into them with their families and building a life.” LISA CORNE LAWYER
which remains a pile of dirt behind a fence. The new townhouse has three bedrooms, but it’s not the same as a separate apartment.
“The rooms are so tiny I’m not even sure what’s going to happen,” said Fatah, who worries about his dad’s heart condition and his emotional well-being. “My father has been sheltered his whole life. He’s never really been by himself. He’s an incredibly talkative person and a real emotional person.”