Friends’ property deal sours
Two friends who teamed up to buy a house had an extraordinary falling out resulting in death threats, assaults, damaged property and a court order to sell the property.
The upmarket house will be sold from under one of the women – the latest chapter in a sorry saga.
Justice Helen Cull described the sale as the only sensible solution to the impasse between Sharryn Evelyn Weber and Debra Lee Henderson.
In her recent High Court judgment, allowing Weber to have the Palmerston North house sold, the judge laid out a living situation marred by violence and arguments.
Weber and Henderson had been renting before deciding to buy 15 Trump Place, in Kelvin Grove, in July 2017. They decided they would live together, with some areas where children and grandchildren could stay if needed.
Weber contributed $108,176, Henderson $11,482, and the rest of the $598,867 for the purchase and fees coming from a mortgage.
Weber applied to the court to have the property sold because she had fallen out with Henderson, and attempts to talk about a sale had been unsuccessful.
In affidavits filed with the court, Weber said she had been verbally abused, threatened, and blocked from common areas of the property.
She said one of Henderson’s children threatened to cut her throat, told her to kill herself, and pushed a bookcase towards her.
Weber also described an incident where she tried to comfort one of Henderson’s grandchildren, a baby at the time.
The baby’s mother was out drinking, and Weber rolled down the baby’s blankets to help her get to sleep.
The mother came home at 3am and yelled at Weber for interfering with her child, threatened to kill her and called her a ‘‘piece of s...’’.
At one point Weber returned home to find entryways had been blocked off, allegedly done to restrict her access to common areas. The electric garage door power was cut, various gates were locked – something Weber said put her at risk if there was a fire.
The rift resulted in mortgage repayments not being met, as Henderson was not contributing to their joint bank account.
Weber moved out in December 2017, but had been going back to get property. An expensive television was smashed, while the internal mechanisms of a piano were snapped.
When trying to get items on February 12, she found wallpaper had been ripped by a cat and rubbish strewn across the house.
Weber wanted the judge to order the house be sold through Marisha Hes of LJ Hooker Palmerston North, and that the house must be kept in good condition until sold. She wanted everyone evicted until the house sold.
The judge agreed with the sale proposal, but denied the application to have everyone leave the property. Henderson had not been made aware of that application, making it inappropriate.
Henderson did not take part in the court proceedings.