The New South Wales law provides that a developer cannot
terminate under a sunset clause in an off-the-plan contract unless the Court
grants them permission to do so.
Property values have soared over the last few years.
Developers who entered off-the-plan contracts to sell a property for, say, $400,000.00 in 2014, which by 2016 is worth
$550,000.00, may feel unhappy at having to sell the property for less than its’
current market value. Some unscrupulous developers began using the sunset
clause in the contract to terminate it by intentionally delaying the completion
of projects until the sunset date arrived. At that point they were terminating
the off-the-plan contracts, quickly completing the projects and then selling
the properties.
In response the New South Wales law now protects buyers
from developers looking to take advantage of the sunset clause in off-the-plan
contracts by forcing developers to get Court approval before terminating the contract.
That legislation was tested recently in a case involving
a developer and a purchaser.
The Court will consider the developer’s reasons for the
delay in creating the Lot, whether the reasons for the delay are reasonable,
whether the developer has acted in bad faith, what effect the termination will
have on the purchaser and whether it is fair and equitable that the developer
be allowed to terminate.
In the recent case of Jobema
Developments Pty Limited v Zhu & Ors the developer selectively extended
the sunset dates on some contracts in the development and not others, and
offered no explanation as to why some contracts were extended where others
weren’t. It will come as no surprise
that the Court refused the developer’s application.
It will be interesting to see how this protection is
extended or redacted as more cases under these laws are brought before the
Courts.
