Holland Hills Mansion - Court Rejects Plea Against Strata Board Decision On En Bloc Sale

Source : The Straits Times, Oct 27, 2007

THE High Court yesterday dismissed an appeal by a minority shareholder against a Strata Titles Board decision approving the en bloc sale of Holland Hills Mansion.

The dissenting owner, Dynamic Investments, had wanted the distribution of the $292 million sale proceeds to be based solely on floor area, or it would stand to lose about $2.4 million.

The 118-unit property on Holland Road had been sold en bloc to developer Calne Pte Ltd, a subsidiary of MCL Land, in November last year.

It is understood that the industry practice is to distribute the proceeds among the owners based on what was decided by them and the project consultants.

In this case, it had been proposed to share the proceeds by the 50:50 method, which is 50 per cent based on the share value and 50 per cent based on the floor area.

But Dynamic, which owned the largest unit on the block, had wanted the share of proceeds to be determined solely by floor area.

The 642 sq m penthouse it owned had a share value of six while the smallest unit, measuring about 57 sq m, had a share value of three.

The Strata Titles Board, in its decision in July, had acknowledged that the objector would have been paid more had the area method been used, but held that the method chosen was ‘not made in bad faith’.

Dynamic, through lawyers from Drew & Napier, had argued, among other things, that the Strata Titles Board had erred in law as the sale was not made in good faith given the distribution method adopted.

But Senior Counsel Deborah Barker argued this was a question of fact, not a point of law, and only issues concerning points of law could be brought up for appeal.

Together with lawyers Chia Ho Choon and Spring Tan from KhattarWong, she represented the majority owners.

Justice Andrew Ang agreed and accepted that the Strata Titles Board decision to approve the sale was made in good faith.

Dynamic’s lawyer Lawrence Tan said yesterday that he was reviewing the decision with his client and the instructing solicitor Clarence Tan from UniLegal before deciding whether a further appeal would be filed.