Our client came to us when she lost her husband and her home. Widowed, with three young sons and an infant daughter, our client faced the additional stress of losing her home. Her late husband and his brother had sold their respective homes and entered into a contract to purchase property on a large piece of land where both families would live. As joint purchaser, her late husband paid a substantial sum towards the property.
However, whilst her husband was on ventilator support in hospital, the other family members (who were to be joint purchasers) instructed the solicitors in the purchase to terminate the contract and entered into a new purchase contract with one of them only being named as the sole purchaser of that large property. Our client’s late husband did not have an Attorney appointed, and as such, our client was not able to utilise any Powers of Attorney to step in and act in his legal and financial matters.
Our client’s husband died, and settlement of the purchased property occurred in the other side’s sole name. Our widowed client and her young children were asked to rent property elsewhere, and two years later, none of the money had been returned to her, without any excuse or explanation.
Our client came to us for assistance when the other side would not give her complete information about the purchased property and refused to provide access to her late husband’s email account and laptop. Additionally, solicitors and real estate agents would not entertain her requests for documents as she was not a party to the purchase. As her late husband died intestate (without a Will) and therefore did not have an appointed Executor for his Estate (‘the Estate’), his wife had no legal authority to request documents.
The first thing our office did was write to the real estate agents and solicitors for the purchase advising them that as next-of-kin, our client sought all relevant documentation to enable the administration of the Estate. The real estate agents would not cooperate as our client was not party to the purchase, and the solicitors provided a few email chains between their office and her late husband. Refusing to accept these unsatisfactory responses, we issued letters seeking preliminary discovery under Part 5 of the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 (NSW) to ensure compliance on their part.
Whilst waiting on a further reply, our office took active steps to conduct personal name searches and property searches to identify all possible properties in all relevant parties’ names to maximise the claim and assets she could receive, noting that the late husband had been involved in a number of business ventures with his family. Additionally, our office applied for (and obtained) Letters of Administration to equip our client with legal authority to speak to relevant parties and act on behalf of the Estate.
Upon receipt of the Letters of Administration, our office once again wrote to the respective parties on behalf of our client, who was now appointed Administrator of the Estate, requesting relevant documentation. Upon receipt of additional documents, it became increasingly clear that our client was entitled to the money invested by her husband into the property, and possibly quite a bit more as a result of the searches and documents produced by other third parties, such as banks.
A formal demand was made for at least the return of the money invested into the property, although instead of paying, the other side engaged new lawyers. Their solicitors requested two extensions of time to comply with our request for documentation before claiming that there were no documents to produce.
Our office then served a draft Statement of Claim setting out the claim. An informal settlement conference was held a few months later between the lawyers on either side. During this conference, the other side’s lawyer inadvertently admitted to having relevant documents and evidence they had not supplied. A final offer was put forward by us.
A few days after the informal settlement conference, we received a phone call from another law firm indicating that they were now acting for the other side. The saga continues, but we are now preparing to commence proceedings for the return of the money invested into the property, for Court-forced production of documents, and for costs to date. Stay tuned.
