Serepisos sues for harrassment
Former bankrupt tycoon Terry Serepisos is taking a $35,000 harassment claim out on the property owner who can’t get the former television star out of his house.
Matthew Ryan’s long-running stoush with Serepisos is heading to the Tenancy Tribunal this week, with Ryan trying to force Serepisos out of his Miramar home.
But Serepisos is claiming that Ryan – whose repeated efforts to evict Serepisos included a foiled attempt to lure him out of the house while he changed the locks – is harassing him and should stump up $35,000 in compensation.
‘‘Since [Ryan’s company] Lifestyle Loans purchased the property, the new owner has been constantly harassing myself and my family, with constant pressure to evict us unlawfully,’’ Serepisos wrote in tribunal documents.
He included testy text messages he had received from Ryan.
‘‘I’m not doing a deal with you Terry at any price,’’ Ryan wrote in one message.
‘‘My problem is with you. I detest everything about your slime ball personality. You are the most narcissistic person I’ve ever had the misfortune to deal with.
‘‘I will never repeat the experience and you’ve run out of life lines. Either vacate voluntarily or I [will] have you thrown out on the street.’’
Ryan yesterday confirmed he sent the message and stood by it.
Stuff reported on the stoush in September, with Ryan claiming Serepisos had used his mother’s properties as collateral to borrow more than $800,000 from him. The money was not repaid, Ryan said – something Serepisos strongly denies.
Two of those – 91 Nevay Rd, and a large adjoining section at Camperdown Rd – were sold by mortgagee sale to a third party.
Meanwhile, Ryan paid $753,000 for the Caledonia Rd house under a mortgagee sale but, when he went to evict Serepisos and his mother, the pair got into a tussle.
Ryan has since struggled to get
Serepisos out of the house. He even tried to change the locks after luring Serepisos out of the house to an arranged meeting, but a neighbour tipped Serepisos off and he rushed back before the work could be done. While Serepisos had filed the original Tenancy Tribunal claim, Ryan confirmed that he would use the process to try to evict him. Serepisos has filed a tenancy agreement signed with his mother, Alliki Serepisos, as landlord and him as the tenant at the Caledonia Rd property. The $500-per-week tenancy agreement started in May and runs through to May 2022. But Ryan, who bought the property in September, claimed the document was illegitimate and no bond had been paid. ‘‘Why would you issue yourself a three-year tenancy back in May? If you did that and it was legitimate, there would be a bond [filed].’’
Serepisos told Stuff the tenancy agreement was real and he had paid the bond to his mother. He would not confirm if this bond had been filed with authorities.
‘‘I’m going to leave that to the adjudicator,’’ he said.
Serepisos will tomorrow ask the Tenancy Tribunal for a declaration that he has a tenancy under the Residential Tenancies Act.
Ryan said that even if the tribunal accepted Serepisos had a legitimate tenancy agreement, he could still legally evict him by December 20.