liberty development screwing over customers - Cosmos Condos Vaughan | GTAMotorcycle.com

liberty development screwing over customers - Cosmos Condos Vaughan

LiNK666

Well-known member
Had a friend who was affected by this. He bought a 2B+D in the first building. Got a good deal paid the money and now they said project is cancelled. He was looking at a $150k appreciation. Liberty is one of the biggest developers in the country and saying finance problems is total BS. I have a condo in a different project in the same area and I would hate for this to happen. Hopefully none of you are affected by this.

They should change the law so the builder if they redo the project in the future they have to give the same people an option to buy a similar unit at the original price. We all know liberty doesn't have money problems.

I know they used the contract to make it legal for them to do this but hopefully liberty gets a class action lawsuit.

https://globalnews.ca/news/4129315/vaughan-cosmos-condominiums-liberty-development/
 
This is not the first time something like this has happened. My guess is the contract and law is on Liberty's side and a class action may go nowhere, hopefully not but... More times than not, the project is stopped (I have no data one way or other here, just in general) because the developer can make more money hitting the reset button vs completing the project.

In the end there is risk in real-estate, this tye of risk can be mitigated by buying resale and not new... but that will give other risks.
 
It will be interesting to see how this moves forward. The last time I remember a sold out development returning all deposits, they built the exact building previously sold. It was still registered as a condo but rented all the units. When the developer thinks the market peak is near, my guess is they will offload all units at that time.

I am not normally pro government intervention, but it may be reasonable to require an arms length transfer of the land if the project is cancelled after being sold. Developers sure as hell do not want to lose their land.

I'm not sure how this one progressed, but I know at least one development that sold out the first phase and was selling phase two while the land was still zoned commercial with a high potential of the development not being allowed to proceed. Units shouldn't be sold until after site plan approval so that at least the building sold matches what they are allowed to build.
 
Contracts don't make it legal to break the law. It would be pretty hard to argue a large condo builder could not secure financing on a sold-out building, I'm sure a clever lawyer could make a buck off this one.
 
Could be worse.

At least they got their deposits back. Someone on GTAM was hawking syndicated mortgages a few years back, buying a stake in condo development. "Make 8% a year, no risk!", she said. Huge fraud in the industry, the companies took the cash, declared bankruptcy and investors lost billions in Toronto.

Poster is long gone from GTAM...
 
while it blows, if they get all the deposit money back , that's sure better than some projects have gone. There are a couple projects around the city where people are out 150-200k . And class actions can take years. That's a lot of time to live in a cardboard box.
 
Funny how the people that are being forced to close on homes worth hundreds of thousands less than what they signed on the dotted line for (another thread here) are all up in arms about it and want "government assistance" to fix their woes, but here we are discussing people on the other end of the spectrum who will be out zero dollars in the end but lost out on some potential profit also screaming for "government involvement" to solve their problem.

Nobody reads contracts before signing them anymore apparently, but then it's all the governments fault/problem when things don't go their way as a result.
 
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Funny how the people that are being forced to close on homes worth hundreds of thousands less than what they signed on the dotted line for (another thread here) are all up in arms about it and want "government assistance" to fix their woes, but here we are discussing people on the other end of the spectrum who will be out zero dollars in the end but lost out on some potential profit also screaming for "government involvement" to solve their problem.

Nobody reads contracts before signing them anymore apparently, but then it's all the governments fault/problem when things don't go their way as a result.
I don't think the gov't owes the investors anything, caveat emptor.

The gov't has a role in protect consumers and investors against unscrupulous business schemes and/or practices. Not retroactively -- that's for the courts -- but perhaps in the future.
 
Buyer beware. If you sign for an unbuilt home, make sure you have and iron clad deadline for it to be built plus a clause killing the deal with the complete return of your down payment if it's not. Don't trust the builder, get a lawyer before you get into a deal like this. I know a guy who got into such a deal and he's still waiting for his house. Don't ever be so desperate for a new house you'll sign for anything. Construction is very corrupt and they'll take you if they can.

The laws are there to protect you *if* you take care of yourself by having a good contract done up. Pay for the lawyer to explain it to you. It's money well spent.
 
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Buyer beware. If you sign for an unbuilt home, make sure you have and iron clad deadline for it to be built plus a clause killing the deal with the complete return of your down payment if it's not. Don't trust the builder, get a lawyer before you get into a deal like this. I know a guy who got into such a deal and he's still waiting for his house. Don't ever be so desperate for a new house you'll sign for anything. Construction is very corrupt and they'll take you if they can.

The laws are there to protect you *if* you take care of yourself by having a good contract done up. Pay for the lawyer to explain it to you. It's money well spent.

In a hot market the developers won't sign your contract. Why should they increase their risks and reduce their escape options when there are people that will sign anything.

Sometimes it swings the other way. In one of the recessions 30 + years ago a builder was stuck with unsold homes and offered a rent to own deal. I know a guy that rented a house and years later bought it when the market recovered. He paid the old price with a portion of his rent deducted from the price.

I don't feel sorry for the greedy but the innocent get caught up in this as well. Some people just want a home but the reality is that it's an investment and they run the risks as well.

Legislation is needed but adds to the costs.
 
Could be worse.

At least they got their deposits back. Someone on GTAM was hawking syndicated mortgages a few years back, buying a stake in condo development. "Make 8% a year, no risk!", she said. Huge fraud in the industry, the companies took the cash, declared bankruptcy and investors lost billions in Toronto.

Poster is long gone from GTAM...

Her posts made me see 'red'...
 
Development close to me announced their "Starting from" prices and took all the customer bookings then raised them all $100k+ a week before they officially went on sale.
 
Development close to me announced their "Starting from" prices and took all the customer bookings then raised them all $100k+ a week before they officially went on sale.

That's not uncommon when a home builder sees high levels of interest.

But people who signed contracts at the earlier price still get that price.

If people put money down without a contract stipulating final pricing, well, here we have yet another great example of dumb consumers.
 

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