[ako pee
January

SEE PAGE-25 |

i

Pages 25¢

FOR DETAILS

LAWYERS, REAL ESTATE AGENTS, DEVELOPERS TARGET OF $3M ACTION

V co-op residents
launch 48 lawsuits

ship to purchase the co-op proper-

THE MEMBERS of a North Vancouver City co-op apart-
ment have launched a massive legai battle in an attempt to
recoup from a host of lawyers, real estate agents, developers
and iasurance companies monies the tenants were forced to
invest to extricate themselves from a fease agreement that
would have pushed annual co-op rents up by over 3,000 per

cent slarting in 1990.

In all, 48 suits claiming over $3
million have been filed in B.C.
Supreme Court) by the '30
residents of Cedarbrooke Apart-
ments Ltd., which is located just

By TIMOTHY RENSHAW
News Reporter
off Westview Drive near the nor-
theast corner of the Upper Levels

BES pose tee aa

Highway.

Reid Dobell, a Mission lawyer
who is handling 45 of the suits,
said the case is one of ‘economic
bullying™’ em othe part) of the
defendants* insurance companies,
who were “hoping the people in-
volved would get tired, die or run
outof money before this thing was
settled.”

The suits allege aevlivence on
the part of the property’s real
estate Jisting agents, the lawyers or
notaries Of the purchasers, and the

Ep

company that acted for the devel-
opers in conveying the 3,190 co-op
shares to their eventual buyers.

According to the — plaintiffs’
opening statement, none of the
buyers was informed by any of the
defendants of the terms of an
unusual rent escalation clause con-
tained in the extremely complex
property lease.

The clause would have resulted
in) property rent: increases of as
much as 3,080 per cent this sear,
and it forced the co-op's member-

ty as the only viable way to get out
of the lease agreement and avoid
similar rent hikes in the future.

But many of the co-op’s
members, who were senior citizens
on a fixed income, were unable fi-
nancially to afford either the rent
increases or the co-op property
purchase.

Cedarbrooke was originally built
as a rental unit townhouse on land

See Tenants