By Staff Reporter
By Benjamin Preiss/The Age
A property developer in Melton South who tried to gouge tens of thousands of dollars from buyers three years after they put down their deposits has backed down.
Land buyers at The Millstone estate received letters this week confirming the developer would honour the original contracts and no longer attempt to renegotiate land prices to extract extra payments.
Property buyer Scott Parker said the about-face came as a huge relief and was a major win for the “little guys”.
Three years ago Mr Parker put down a deposit for a block of land at the estate valued at $130,000. Earlier this year developer Custodian Toolern Syndicate demanded he pay an extra $55,000 because the property value had increased while the land was being prepared for subdivision.
Last week Custodian Toolern Syndicate backed down, telling buyers it would honour the original prices.
Last month the Victorian Parliament passed new laws banning “sunset clauses” that allowed developers to terminate land sale contracts after three years if the plan for the subdivision had not been registered.
Now developers can only exercise sunset clauses by pursuing the matters in the Supreme Court or with the written consent from the buyer. The laws were backdated to August last year. A spokesman for Custodian Toolern Syndicate said original contracts and land values would be honoured.
“We have been negotiating with a number of parties and as a result of the change in legislation we have written to several of them to notify them that we will be complying with the new laws as they stand, just as we complied with the old ones.”
