Developer sues condo pre-sale buyers for abandoning deposits
It's the newest trend in B.C. real estate: developers suing pre-sale condominium buyers who are walking away from their deposits.
Vancouver real estate developer Amacon has filed lawsuits against seven buyers in the last month for pulling out of Surrey's Morgan Heights development, CBC News has learned.
And those pre-sale contract holders could be on the hook for much more than their deposits if they lose the lawsuits.
For years, the red-hot real estate market meant speculators could make money by putting down a small deposit on a condominium before it was built and then selling it a short time later.
But now many people who put down deposits at the market's peak are obliged to take possession of properties they don't want and can't finance because of tumbling values.
In some cases, the banks are refusing to give buyers financing to cover the pre-sale contract price without a larger down payment to cover the decline in the market value.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/01/22/bc-developer-lawsuit-presale-contract-deposits.html
Author