A group of Blue Chip investors are continuing their bid to avoid being held accountable for millions of dollars worth of property settlements.The Court of Appeal is sitting this week to hear three simultaneous cases brought by 36 representative Blue Chip
A group of Blue Chip investors are continuing their bid to avoid being held accountable for millions of dollars worth of property settlements.
The Court of Appeal is sitting this week to hear three simultaneous cases brought by 36 representative Blue Chip investors against three property development companies - Greenstone Barclay Trustees, Turn and Wave and Icon Central.
Under Blue Chip Financial Solutions’ various investment schemes, investors signed up to sale and purchase agreements and paid deposits on apartments in four Auckland department buildings.
The developments are the Barclay building on Albert Street, the Icon on St Martin’s Lane, Chatham on Pitt Street and the Bianco near the top of Queen Street.
In exchange, they were offered a procurement fee, or other financial incentives, and a commitment from Blue Chip to buy the properties back before settlement.
But Blue Chip collapsed in 2008, and investors are being pursued for settlements now that the apartments are completed.
The High Court last year rejected the investors’ bid to cancel the sale and purchase agreements.
Lawyer Paul Dale hopes this week to overturn that decision and to recover the deposits paid by investors to the property companies.
If successful, the cases could serve as a precedent for a wider pool of about 300 Blue Chip investors.
Most of the investors do not have the financial means to settle and claim that they had not been made aware of the implications of the sale and purchase agreements.
The Court of Appeal hearing will run until Friday.
A test case on a different issue, brought by retired Blue Chip investors Bruce and Dorothy Bartle against Blue Chip's lender GE Finance, is scheduled to be heard by the Supreme Court in October.
