a contract is a contract. You pay’s your money and you takes your chances,

I have no sympathy for these “flippers” who have landed on their backs and now they want the taxpayers to bail them out.

Go away….

Did these people read their contracts, and better have someone who knows contract law explain it to them? Or do price only go up? Give Dave Barrett a call for a shoulder to lean on.

Sorry about your luck! We have Penny Ballum on D.

Have a look at the Neighbourhood Energy Facility stacks that glow different colours just east of Cambie Bridge (the fingernails) –
– blue means that they aren’t burning much natural gas (instead recapturing heat from sewage, etc.)
– red means that they are burning a lot of natural gas (recall that the neighbourhood protested the burning of wood pellets).

Well, those fingernails have been consistently glowing bright red for the past several months.

‘They should just bulldoze the whole lot and put up an amusement park. We could call it NPA Land.’

Bobbie Bees, this is a very odd comment, and it probably doesn’t deserve a response, but I’ll respond anyway.

As PGH implies, the planning and development of the Olympic Village has spanned many administrations. Indeed, Larry Campbell’s administration deserves the credit for proposing the current plan comprising a highly sustainable, alternative building form of development.

As I have previously noted on this blog, one prominent Vancouver developer told me that he did not bid on the land because he thought that the Campbell administration was taking too long to get the plans finalized and he worried there would not be time to complete the project in an orderly fashion before the Olympics deadline.

When the NPA came into office, they did make changes, especially to the social and income mix. They cut back on the number of subsidized housing units, and some of the other amenities, given the absence of funding from senior governments. However, they did not reduce the ‘sustainability features’.

The selection of Millennium did occur during the NPA administration, and the buyers who are now suing purchased during the NPA Administration.

When Vision took office, measures were taken to ensure that the pre-sale buyers could not ‘walk away’ from their purchases. As I noted in previous posts on this blog, the city was very careful to act in a manner so that the pre-sales would remain intact. If it hadn’t been for the fact that there were so many pre-sales in place, the city would likely have taken over the direct ownership and development from Millennium much sooner.

Indeed, one of the legal measures that the city took, which resulted in the land being leased, rather than sold until the project was completed and the sales closed, contributed to Millennium’s earlier difficulties in arranging project financing.

For these reasons, I am confused by the argument by the lawyer, acting on behalf of the disgruntled purchasers, that the city is the developer, and should have been named as such in the disclosure statement. The city was not the developer of the condominiums; it leased the land to the developer during construction; and it became the project lender; but it took extraordinary steps to ensure that it couldn’t be deemed to be the developer.

I am not a lawyer, but I’ll be astonished if this aspect of the argument is successful.

As for the deficiencies, there is no doubt that there are many. Water pouring through the ceiling sounds terrible, but water poured through the ceiling on opening day on a project that I built at Larch and 41st in Kerrisdale. Ironically, it’s been recognized by the Masonry Institute as one of the best constructed buildings in the city, but a backed up irrigation line caused the problem. I have not heard of any more complaints in the 13 years since it was completed.

This is not to diminish the deficiencies at the Olympic Village. There are many, especially since so many of the units were rushed to be completed at once. There is no doubt that they need to be addressed, and the city’s Receiver is carrying out a deficiency repair program.

I must say I do feel bad for some of the purchasers who bought units some time ago, and now see similar units (similar, but not identical) being sold for less than they paid. But this happens in real estate all the time. It happens in the stock market…trust me, I know only too well.

However, in the case of the stock market, I have bought shares at prices that will never recover. In the case of real estate, I am not aware of anyone who held onto a purchase for ten years or more, who lost money. Yes, there’s a short term loss…..but over the long term, real estate in Vancouver seems to eventually go up. I predict that over the long term, the prices paid will recover, and once the community is filled up, and the restaurants and shops are in place, people will very much enjoy living in what will one day be a very lively and successful community.

As readers of this blog know, I have been very critical of many of the decisions related to the Olympic Village. I continue to have concerns, especially related to the social housing units.

However, in this case, I am disturbed by the claims of the disgruntled buyers and their lawyer. As long as the city is committed to repair all deficiencies, I do not think they are entitled to get out of their purchases.

That being said, there is no doubt that the publicity associated with their claims is affecting the sales performance, which will ultimately lead to increased losses for the city. I do hope the city, the Receiver, and their many consultants and professional advisors are carefully considering what to do to address this significant new challenge.

“I don’t know what are considered normal “deficiencies”, or what constitutes “not exactly as shown” or how these are recified to everyone’s satisfaction, both morally and legally”

Sorry, contract law is completely amoral. Offer and acceptance has no room for fuzzy morality.

Allowing speculators to get bailed out when the market drops does lead to ‘moral’ hazard; a public policy concern the courts are sure to focus on in the case.

@ Michael 9:

“My Akamai stock is down 14.8% this morning. Who do I sue?”
———-

Take a hint from Jimmy Patison and consider the stock market as nothing more than a complex gambling joint. Buy real estate instead. Even a *somewhat* leaky flat on the OV will increase will increase in value over time.

These are not “normal” deficiencies. There was an unholy rush to finish the job, and many shortcuts were used. I have heard from a professional who has done inspections, and the word is that major repairs, not just remediation, will be needed. Walls and ceiling will have to be opened and the whole operation will be expensive. I think these people have a right to fair value. I wonder what happened to oversight and inspections, but it’s too late now. The thing should be done right. Saying “too bad” just doesn’t cut it.

Micheal, the NPA is nothing new to the city. Sure, they weren’t in power when Davinci’s council made the stupid bid for the Owelympics, but once the NPA got into power it was ‘Game On’.
I can’t for one minute phatom why the hell money was even wasted building this place as is.
It should have been built as low income housing right from the start.
Nothing wrong with building it up at Little Mountain to replace the older housing.
Would it have been glamorous? Nope.
Would it have made the city a ton of money had the craps game known as the American Banking Industry not taken a dive in the crapper, nope.

But no, that just wouldn’t do, would it.
Housing low income people just doesn’t have that potential for condo mania, does it?
So we had to spec out luxury condos.
Now we have ‘flippers’ and other speculators trying to sue the city because of the ‘fire sale’ price drop required to get any activity.
What a sham.

Wow this is a vicious group. I am sure not all buyers were condo flippers. Some people actually buy to live in their units. I agree, if you specualate you might lose and no doubt that is partially the case. The pre-inspection on purchase is really nothing more than a quick chance to write down some deficiences, but not a means of breaking the contract. There really isn’t a lot of room for buyers to do much about ending up with a crap product. Even to obtain warrantee is often a long drawn out expensive proposition where the owners or strata must spend money on Engineers to try and “prove” there is a problem. We buy a car in this province and have various levels of protection, yet if its home purchase, were stuck with it. I have been a victom of leaky condo’s myself, and yes, I did my homework before hand. We still allow numbered companies to build these projects in this province, so in the end it becomes extremely difficult to sue. Usually what happens is a mediation where you settle for 20-40% call it a day. Would some of you be okay with a faulty child seat? buyer beware? suck it up?