I am being Sued

What a scary story.

Could you counter sue him for selling the house so far under value?

I have changed my original post after re-reading your story and reading gross’s post (below) which is really comprehensive and impressive.

I really hope things turn out.. As far as the stress is concerned, is it too late to transfer your assets to your wife, just a thought, or would that be disallowed because of the circumstances.

Good luck, and make sure your lawyer is on the ball.

Wylie.

hi
this is not a place to answer these types of questions as it is asking not only the lenght of a piece of string but if its shorter the who cut it.
but here is the best I can give.
in red
Good Morning, -need help!!
I happened to be on a television show a few years back, they ran a strory on me and my property investment portfolio. After this was ran i was swamped with people that wanted my help or advice. I met one man who came to me & wanted to do a Joint Venture. i agreed & a contract was drawn up( this is the most inportant you must read this document and you legal will check it should have been done by a legal) where profits or losses were split 50/50 is this in that agreement. We both live in Cairns, we decided to do a full home renovation. He said he was cashed up & ready to do it, the renovation we did went bad who was doing the accounts and who was getting the quotes and who budjeted the project, the budget blew. it ran a few months over time again who was in charge you or him and the market fell. mY JV Partner ( who was the money partner) had plenty of money left to him from an inheritance, during the Project he spent most of his inheritance on other business and rental properties leaving no money to finish the renovations or for holding costs in our JV, so i helped out & paid about $30,000 to help complete was this a formalised loan to the jv company or group was paperwork drawn up I hope so, the house was finished & on the market, it looked great irrelavent. Even though the budget was blown my $30,000 was the amount it blew by. Anyway, my investor got into financial hot water, the business he bought was not going as planned and he was out of cash. My investor sold the renovated house without my permission for $150,000 less than we first initially anticipated how did he sell the house can you get a copy of the sales contract from the real estate or selling agent and a list of the people that went thru the house if the house was joint owned you should, if as you say latter on that the house was in his name then you may not get this info but will come to that later, he had to do this becuase the banks were close to foreclosing do you have any of this correspondance keep copies. During the time of the JV me and the investor became good mates( there is no mates in business there are partners that are aiming on a single goal if these don’t happen then you get what you have now friend and foe) we would paint together, and pretty much did as much as we could to the house to save money. we surfed together & our families hung out, our children became friends also. Cause he sold the house $150,000 lower than our anticipated asking price it incurred a loss. of about $100,000, the day it settled his solicitor ( did you have separtate legal advice and or was this the same solicitor that drew up the jv agreement if it was then he is your legal solicitor as well and to tell you if a loss is iminent) sent me a letter saying that it was my fault, i mislead this investor, i was negligent , i had broken the trades practises act & the only reason the investor bought the house was because we were going to make about $50,000 again that letter is very important for your legals to work on, i was shocked to get this letter becuase i thought we were friends i tried to call him forget him and work on the legalities of your understanding and your agreements, fax him email but he will not talk to me, all correspondance must go through his solicitor about 150.00 this is right and should happen once you have the strong grounds which I think you have
then and only then contact him but this time tell his solicitor that you want him to contact you and go and buy a portable mp3 player and record all correspondance in this matter and when talking to his solicitor tell him that you are recording you calls and leave the rest to your legals. ( so he tells me) I have offered to pay my part of the loss offer nothing do this only thru your legals I would be doing the opposite and sueing for your losses and mediating solution (50%) but he is sueing me for the whole loss PLUS the profits he would have got if we sold it at the asking price only after you have the adove information can you work out who and why the loss happened and if its a case of s–t happens then s–t hapeens and it depends what is in that jv contract.This is causing me and my family severe stress don’t stress this is business and even thro lots of people think its easy business isn’t make sure you pay nothing and offer nothing unless your legal tells you and even then if itsw a large amunt ad that 50k check with another legal to make sure it might cost you 3k but its a saving, any help or advice would be welcome, i have a good litigation solicitor and i am ready for anything. Even though it was not my fault that he ran out of money i accept my responsibility in entering the JV and am willing to pay my 50% strike this out put a sunset clause in place that if this deal is not mediated by 2 days that offer is off the table you need to get rid of that offer and put the cost to him and then mediate back to 50/ 50 if thats in that jv contract. Please note that he was an active investor, no purchases including the house were made without consulting each other need to document who made the call and who ordered the stuff and was anything in writing in future these costs need to be done by and accountant it put a third party in place and indipendant person and they will say who was calling the shots, the house also was in his name you need to do a title search and get as much info on this house as you can if the hous was purchased in his name as you say your legals will work on this as you are the investor not him . PLEASE HELP ANY ADVICE WORDS OF WISDOM OR ANYTHING WOULD BE GREAT!!! PS I do not do JV’S for a living I do
this one was my first!!
my advice is get a legal that you can work with buy the mp3 and sit down with a big pad know and write as much information about what was agreed to go into this venture and you legal will tell you what type of information he wants.
from my looking at it and this is the string and its lenght I think if the jv was done as it should have been and was draw up by a legal and it is as per your above you are not on quick sand here but he is and I would be hitting him for full losses plus you potential loss in profits and remember there is no friends in business there are people you like or you work for a common goal and even some you don’t like and would not sit in the same pub but you still work to get the goal you want but not friends.
my .002

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No – wait until you receive legal advice.

An ‘offer’, even of part payment may be seen as acknowledgement of liability. This needs to be determined first.

I will also add that all communications to you from this person should be through your advisor. You may be surprised how innocent written or verbal comments you may make can come back and bite you.

Finally, take on board Cata’s comments.

Derek
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0409 882 958
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It seems you have – the other party hasn’t.

Derek
[email protected]
http://www.mononpoly.tic.com.au
0409 882 958
Skype – derekjones2113

That’s really sad. I was listening to a great CD the other day by Rob Balanda of http://www.clausesmadesimple.com In hind sight how easy would it have to pay a few dollars for his Joint Ventures kit and found out that the partner who hasn’t got his/her name on the title should protect his/herself by logding a caveat on the title. The partner then could not have sold it

Hi all – not a nice situation and a good warning for us all. Perhaps people who receive money from a windfall may not be the best people to invest with. easy come easy go so to speak. It is not as if this JV partner had worked diligently to build up funds that were going into the jv. It seems like it came quickly and fingers were in too many pies.

Gross – i reckon the jv agreement depending on how drafted of course may be sufficient for this person to have lodged a caveat over the property without the non financial partner chipping in cash as well. Just a thought and it does not help much now.

Does the JV agreement cover dispute resolution. eg have you specifically spelt out that mediation would be the first step, or have you appointed a mediator in the event of a dispute. Who was going to audit the accounts etc.

I Buy Property http://www.cashflowproperties.co.nz

Hi George

Thanks for sharing this with us. It just shows what can happen to people – even if careful.

But don’t worry too much. This is probably just a bluff. It is easy to send out a letter to scare someone. Some people would be so worried they pay up.

Just because you have received a letter doesn’t mean that you will be sued. And even if you are sued, what are the chances of them winning? You have set yourself up with a JV contract, drawn up by a solicitor. You have a good start. The other party doesn’t have much to go on. Some alleged promises to make a profit. It won’t stand up in court.

Have they lodged documents at court, like a statement of claim yet? If not, then nothing to worry about (yet). Even if they do, you can file a defence, or even countersue them.

I could go out tomorrow and lodge legal documents to sue you (if I knew your name). You can sue anyone. But that doesn’t mean it will pass the first round at court.

I suggest you relax, and just get some good legal advice.

Terryw
Discover Home Loans
Parramatta
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You have nothing to feel bad about George.
It appears that u are the partner with the Integrity.
Definately let the solicitors deal with it.People like this guy you dealt with, need to learn a lesson about life and business.Its not always the best thing just to file papers to sue,and consider yrself the only victim.
It sounds like u would have even covered half the loss even after he “fire sale’d it”. Pretty generous in my book.

Stand strong man,and dont take it personally.It was his choice to resolve it this way .

Let us know how it goes

all the best
Luke

We’ve got 70 yrs on planet earth,Lets make the most of every day!