Horizon Towers Case - STB Hearing Could Be As Soon As Oct 30

Source : The Business Times, October 17, 2007

Buyers keen to be made parties to board's hearing

The Horizon Towers saga is set to pick up again, with the Strata Titles Board (STB) set to hear the application for the en-bloc development of the site as soon as Oct 30.

The board offered this date, as well as several others in November, to the owners in a meeting yesterday to determine how to proceed with the case.

With several lawyers indicating that they were not available on some of the dates suggested, the exact schedule is likely to be firmed up only next week.

The buyers, represented by Allen & Gledhill (A&G), expressed their interest at yesterday's meeting to be made parties to the STB hearing. They will have to submit their application to do so on Friday.

The board has allowed lawyers for the majority and minority owners to comment on A&G's application, in their respective submissions, also due on Friday. The STB will then decide on Monday whether to allow A&G in as parties to the hearing.

In the earlier STB hearing, A&G and its clients - Hotel Properties Ltd (HPL) and its partners - were not allowed to participate. The High Court last week declined to make an order permitting their participation in the impending hearing.

This upcoming STB hearing will be a resumption of the previous hearing, which ended on August 3 when the board threw out Horizon Towers' application on the basis that it was defective because of three missing pages.

But the High Court ruled last week that the STB was wrong to dismiss the application. Justice Choo Han Teck said the missing pages did not constitute an 'incurable defect' as the board had alleged - as it was not a substantial omission that prejudiced the minority owners. He noted that the STB was notified of the missing pages, and was provided with them during the hearing.

The High Court's decision means the STB will now have to continue hearing the application from where it left off. This includes the objections to be made by the development's minority owners, as well as the merits of the case, before it decides whether to grant Horizon Towers the order that would enable the collective sale to go ahead.

The saga began in February when HPL and its partners agreed to buy the Leonie Hill development for $500 million. But the deal turned sour when several owners were heard to be unhappy with the sale price, after neighbouring developments started going for much more.

HPL and its partners have accused the owners of not doing their best to ensure that a proper application was filed to the STB and is looking to sue them for up to $1 billion if the sale does not go through.