Toni Collette Paddington property court case hears consistent $6.5 million price estimate
Lights, camera, action! Well not really. Despite the headlines over the past year, it was a just like any other court room filled with trolleys of affidavits when the 8th floor NSW Supreme Court hearing got underway today. All presided over by acting Justice William Windeyer.
It's the three-day Sydney court hearing centred on the actor Toni Collette and her musician husband, David Galafassi, being sued over their failure to settle on an alleged $6.35 million Paddington terrace purchase.
The were no celebrities in the court though McGrath estate agent Ben Collier was there to provide lengthy testimony to the court.
Collette, who was snapped only recently by the paparazzi in Sydney in News Ltd papers, was absent from the courtroom corridors but it was heard she had suggested she didn't have the finances to go through with the Paddington purchase and "implored" the vendors to settle the matter away from the public gaze.
She is currently filming a movie about the search for happiness. With filming scheduled in Canada and London, a first production still (pictured below) for “Hector and the Search for Happiness”, featuring Simon Pegg and Toni Collette, has been recently posted on a Toni Collette fan website.
The court was told the selling agent Ben Collier's initial price estimate was $6.5 million before the 2011 $23,000 marketing campaign got underway for the vendor, Susie Kelly, the co-founder and owner of Industrie clothing with her husband, Nick.
The court heard the three Woollahra comparable sales Collier offered for the Kelly's price guidance were 19 Trelawney Street, 3 Tara Street and 50 Edward Street. After being approached by the vendors in early 2011, and then around April and May 2011 Collier said there were a few things not selling, so he felt it best for the vendors to wait to Spring 2011.
The court hearing dates back to then October 2011 sale when the entertainment industry couple reputedly signed a contract to buy a double-fronted Paddington terrace from Susie Kelly.
Ben Collier confirmed that Mr and Mrs Galafassi were not on the McGrath data base but came to the property after the marketing got underway.
"There was a confidentiality agreement in the sales contract," Mr Collier said, adding that the internal McGrath price sale recording system allowed the full details of the sale to be hidden from all but the parties to the contract.
However word got out that the Stewart Street house (pictured below) had been snapped up at around $6.35 million quite early in its marketing campaign in October 2011. The court was told David Galafassi put down a $317,500 deposit on September 30, 2011 agreeing to complete the sale on December 30, 2011.
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The entertainment industry couple made their alleged subsequent decision not to proceed with the Paddington purchase some months later after they struggled to find a buyer of their Bronte house.
Their 1885 Bronte weatherboard cottage that cost $4.4 million in mid-2009 struggled to find a buyer despite being tipped to sell for around $900,000 less than their purchase price, and ended up selling at $3.5 million
Collette and Galafassi instead bought back at Bronte, swapping homes with the buyer of their own $3.5 million house.
The Kellys had bought on Kutti Beach at Vaucluse in 2011 for $15.5 million, so incurred a land tax charge on the redundant unsold Paddington property.
By January 2012 Collier indicated he was still hopeful Mr and Mrs Galafassi would complete the purchase, but it was not to be.
"I wanted to write to you directly in the hope that you will understand," Collette emailed the Kelly's on January 24 2012 bringing an end to the hopes that a sale might proceed.
"We can no longer buy your beautiful house. We don't have the finances to go through with the purchase. For the sake of both our families I implore you to find a way to settle this less publicly."
The Kelly's barrister Bernie Coles QC suggested one of the reasons for pulling out of the Paddington purchase was that they had decided to buy another property.
A proposed post-Easter 2012 auction marketing campaign - with a repeated $6.5 million estimate - never got underway, although Ben Collier suggested his price estimate was an unlikely outcome.
Mr Collier actually envisaged the market had deteriorated by "at least 10%" over the period between early 2011 and 2012 with three Holdsworth Street sales highlighting the "gradual deterioration of the market." He pointed especially to the sales of 86, 88 and 90 Holdsworth Street.
His proposed $20,000 remarketing campaign recommendation was offered to the Kelly's, but the Kelly's decided not to take it to May 2012 auction or undertake any advertising at all.
Under cross examination from the Gallafassi barrister, Jeremy Stoljar SC, Mr Collier said it was possible that a marketing campaign may have achieved a better result.
"It's possble it might have acheived a better price," but not likely, Mr Collier told the court.
"Its impossible to draw any conclusions from movements in the market based in the Holdworth Street sales," the Galafassi barrister suggested.
It was important that there be a proper marketing campaign," the Galaffassi barrister suggested.
The Paddington terrace resold on April 24, 2012 to Ian Ball from Ernst & Young for $5.5 million, so the entertainment industry couple face an $850,000-plus claim against them for the difference.
"They (Ian Ball) weren't the first person to come along," Mr Collier said under cross examination by the Galafassi's barrister.
The court was advised that brief consideration was given to the house being a $4000 weekly rental to the Roberts-Thomson family during the period when the sale was unravelling.
Designed by architect Anthony Gill and completed in 2009, the five-bedroom, four-bathroom house sits on a 360-square-metre block..
The Kelly's are seeking relief for the $850,000 difference in the price of the resold terrace house, along with $43,500 land tax, as well as the costs of its resale and interest.