B.C. real estate agent seeks $800K in commissions for units sold in financially troubled condo project

A Surrey, B.C., real estate agent is suing a financially troubled developer for $800,000 in allegedly unpaid commissions on sales of dozens of units in one of three major Metro Vancouver highrise condo projects now facing receivership.

The lawsuit — filed in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster this week — is the latest in a series of civil claims relating to projects conceived by Thind Properties in Burnaby, Surrey and Richmond.

Gurmail Singh claims he entered into an agreement in September that would have seen him collect two per cent of the purchase price on 44 units in Burnaby's 327-home Highline Project — known in the lawsuit as 6511 Sussex Heights Development Ltd.

The real estate agent claims the units were sold the same month and that it was "solely with" his efforts "that the lands were sold."

The value 'will be lost'

Singh's lawsuit is part of a web of litigation which has sprung up in recent months around a number of Thind projects. 

Last week, a judge placed the developer's District Northwest project — a two-tower, 1,023-unit yet-to-be-built complex billed as "Surrey's new growth centre" — into receivership after Thind allegedly defaulted on an $80 million mortgage.

At the same time, the financial backer — Kingsett Mortgage Corporation — also asked the court to appoint a receiver for two more Thind developments: the Highline project referenced in Singh's lawsuit and Minoru Square, a 400-unit condo building reportedly stalled last year.

The court has yet to rule on those two applications.

The complex finances of the projects and the multiple parties involved in ownership make it difficult to assess the bottom-line impact of the proceedings.

Although Thind is the developer, the lawsuits are filed not against Thind but against the partnerships and companies incorporated to build the individual projects. 

In court documents, Thind president Daljit Thind — who is also director of one of two companies overseeing the Surrey project — claims they were near a deal with a "joint venture partner" to refinance District Northwest when Kingsett filed for receivership.

"At this critical juncture, [the companies] need additional time to secure new joint venture partners," Thind wrote in an affidavit opposing the bid for receivership of the Surrey building.

"The value/opportunity for [Thind and partners] will be lost with the appointment of a receiver."

Pre-sold units not 'at risk'

In the same affidavit, Thind claims 90 per cent of units at District Northwest have been pre-sold. The court documents contain more than a dozen small-print pages of unit numbers and deposits totalling nearly $78 million, currently held in trust by a law firm.

"Despite the delay to the start of construction, I do not believe the deposits for the pre-sold units are at risk as they were sold at a price that is below current market value," Thind wrote.

The finances of homebuyers may be secure, but a number of lawsuits have been filed in recent months against the Highline project by workers and contractors, like Gurmail Singh, who claim they are out of pocket.

In a claim filed at the end of October, Jab Contracting claims Thind owes the company nearly $1.7 million on a contract worth more than $4.5 million for the installation of steel stud and drywall systems at the Highline.

Last month, a B.C. Supreme Court judge issued a default order for $17,071 after a crane operator filed a small claims lawsuit over work done at the Highline building. Another small claims lawsuit filed in September over a $16,000 fire safety plan for the Highline is still outstanding.

The developers behind the Highline have also not responded to a lawsuit filed last April by a company claiming nearly $600,000 for the "supply of electrical work and materials" for the Highline development.

'There is currently a lot of uncertainty'

The court documents outline the perils the developers face in relation to mortgages worth a combined total of nearly $330 million: $80 million for District Northwest, $72.6 million for Minoru Square and $176.5 million for the Highline.

Kingsett Mortgage Corporation claims the interest on the Surrey project is accruing at $31,661 a day, while the Highline's interest adds $42,902 a day to the tally, and the Richmond project costs another $24,868 per day.

In the lawsuit seeking to place the Highline and Minoru Square projects into receivership, the mortgage company also accuses the Highline developer of misappropriating $7.5 million in GST following the sale of units in the Burnaby building.

"Rather than remitting these funds to the Canada Revenue Agency, the Highline borrower absconded with these funds and used the funds for internal obligations, which it would not disclose," the court documents read.

The developer has not responded to the allegation.

In his affidavit, Kingsett loan and portfolio management director Daniel Pollack claimed receivership of the Surrey project was necessary to "ensure the lands are sold in an expedient manner that secures the most value."

"I have experience with the valuation and sale of real property," Pollack wrote.

"Given my experience, I am concerned about uncertain interest rates, which could negatively affect the value of the lands. In my experience with the market, there is currently a lot of uncertainty in the economy and particularly in the real estate market."

Thind did not respond to an email from CBC requesting comment on the lawsuits.