SPECULATIVE BUYING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25718, 14 December 1944, Page 6

SPECULATIVE BUYING

PURCHASE OF HOUSES REFUSAL OF TRANSFER The Otago Land Sales Court—Messrs E. J. Anderson (chairman), D. J. Ross, and R. Walls—in a reserved decision which was delivered yesterday refused to grant an application for the transfer of a property in Castle street on the grounds that the intended purchase was considered by the committee to be a speculative transaction. The application was made by Lindsay Neilson for the transfer of a property, lots 3 and 4, deposit plan 69, City of Dunedin, to Ethel May Henderson, the purchase price being £1650. The application was heard by the committee on Tuesday, when the present tenant of the property, Aubrey Somerset Whitcombe,. through counsel and in evidence, objected to the proposed transfer beinf approved on the grounds that he had been willing to purchase the place. The committee’s decision is as follows: “In the view of the committee, this purchase by Mrs Henderson is merely the end of a long series of transactions —some 15 in all—between Mrs Henderson and her husband since 1938. According to the evidence before the committee, there has been in these transactions a total price increment on the resales of some £3497 10s. Admittedly, money has been expended in renovations and improvements,' but the committee is not at all disposed to regard the matter of improvements as absorbing anything like this figure. “In the months of August, September, and October, 1944, there have been three applications presented to the court in which there has been a statement by the Hendersons that the purchase was made for the purpose of providing a home. Finally, the committee finds it difficult .to accept the position that the present home in Richardson street was bought to give possession to, a purchaser of a place just sold, and because Mrs Henderson apprehended delay in getting into possession of the property in Castle street, the subject of this application. “The committee is forced to the conclusion,” the judgment added, “that this purchase of the present property is speculative rather than real. Accordingly, it feels in duty bound to regard the purchase of this property in the light of section 51 as speculative, and, taking into account the circumstances of the particular case, to regard its purpose as uneconomic as it will involve a man established in a storekeeping business for eight years being ousted from his business when he is himself able _to purchase the premises at £1435, which fs accepted as the basic value as against the £1650 which Mrs Henderson agreed to pay. The interested party, .Whitcombe, who owns the business! is a married man who served 10 At e the r< hearfng, Mr F. W. McElrea appeared for thd vendor, Mr L B. Stevenson for the purchaser Mr C L. Calvert for the objector (Mr Whitcombe), and Mr W. L. Miller for the Crown. „ . . Transfers Approved

The following applications concerning properties of £ 1000 and over were approved:— , _, Martin Joseph Heffernan to Magdalene Annie Brooks, part lot 3, township of West Mosgiel; purchase price £ 1775. „ „ Trustees in the estate of George Clark, deceased, to Walter Hugh Aitchison and Janet Muir Aitchison, part section 2, block 3, Anderson’s Bay subdivision; purchase price £1450. Sidney Dunkley to Margaret Donnelly, allotment 28, Anderson’s Bay district; purchase price £1650. Roy Applegate Harris to Lillian Phoebe Felicia Wright, allotment 17, town district; purchase price £1125. Mary Fyfe Henderson to Bessie Frances Vanstone, part sections 18 and 19 block 19, town of Dunedin; purchase price £3500 (land and buildings £3200, chattels £300). . George Proctor and Annie Proctor to Mary Fyfe Henderson, allotment 2, city of Dunedin: purchase price £3650 (land and buildings £3550, chattels £ James Robert Ellingford to Kenneth Alexander • McLennan and Margaret Christina McLennan, allotment 4, township of Rothesay. Ravensbourne; purchase price £1125. _ . A _, Thomas James Allison to Robert Edward Lawless, sections 1,2. and 13, block 11. Tarras S.D.; purchase price granted by consent as follows:—Land and buildings £3OOO, water £440. stock and chattels £1350. The total consideration of these and related transactions is not to exceed £5120.