Former car dealer Rick Damelian loses bid to save McMahons Point home from bank repossession
BANKRUPT former car dealer Rick Damelian has failed in his bid to save his McMahons Point harbourside home from repossession by the bank.
In a decision handed down by the Supreme Court on June 7 and published today, Justice Michael Slattery ordered Damelian must "give possession to
National Australia Bank" of his two apartments at McMahons Point.
Mr Damelian told the court he had owned the apartments for 27 years. He says he has not been able to make his mortgage repayments due to the loss of his business and related financial difficulties.
The debt at June 7 was $6.6 million, and interest has been accruing $1622.88 per day.
The court was told Damelian has been in default of his mortgage since September 2011 and "on notice" that he was facing foreclosure for six months.
According to the judgment, Damelian told the court that the NSW Sheriff sent him a letter warning him that action would be taken today, June 17, to evict him "without further warning".
Damelian, 62, then rushed to court to stop this from occurring, arguing he was too sick to be evicted.
He asked the court to order a stay on the execution of the writ for possession for six weeks until July 31.
He also argued if he was evicted before July 31 he would be "homeless" because he could not rent a new home – at Whale Beach on the Northern Beaches until August.
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Damelian told the court that he "cannot afford motel or hotel accommodation" and was relying on the kindness of family and friends to pay for him to lease the Whale Beach home for about $700 a week from landlord Donna Reidy.
The lease will be in the name of Damelian’s wife, Jacqueline, the court was told.
Damelian said that he had spoken to Ferrier Hodgson partner Steve Sherman, who had assured him it would be okay for him to remain living in the home until July.
Damelian also alleged Ferrier Hodgson were not proposing to put his house on the sales block until after the federal election in September.
However Mr Sherman denied this, and Damelian’s evidence was contradicted by Ryan Spooner, from Ferrier Hodgson, who said he had been instructed to "take immediate steps to ready the McMahon's Point property for sale, to engage an agent its their sale and to sell it as soon as reasonably practicable".
Mr Spooner told the court he had no intention of delaying, nor any instructions to delay the sale until after the election.
The court was told once the bank had possession of the apartments, Jeffrey Pickering, the senior director, Group Strategic Business Services at National Australia Bank, "intends to instruct …Ferrier Hodgson to market the property for sale as soon as possible".
Representing himself in court, Damelian gave a certificate from Dr Robert Bowser stating Damelian had insulin dependent diabetes, some signs of kidney failure, hypertension, ischemic heart disease, obstructive sleep apnoea, as well as a chronic dental bone infection following dental work. He also has "profound characteristic sleep disturbance".
He also cited an umbilical hernia operation he had on April 17 this year.
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Justice Slattery said in his decision that he found "it difficult to accept" Damelian "cannot get alternative accommodation".
He said Damelian appeared to be unhappy at "the prospect of having to move twice rather than once".
"It does seem that is at the heart of the hardship claimed. He is having to move twice rather than once," Justice Slattery said.
"He certainly has a preference, quite understandably, to go into the Whale Beach property, a property which a friend of his has generously made available to him at a rent which may not necessarily reflect its full market value," Justice Slattery said.
"But I find it difficult to accept that there is no alternative accommodation available to Mr Damelian," he said.
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"His assertion that there is no alternative accommodation for him is unsupported by the kind of direct evidence one might expect."
Mr Damelian’s bankruptcy trustee, Andrew Wiley, has not returned calls seeking comment.
The Daily Telegraph has also sought comment from the NAB and Ferrier Hodgson.
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