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16-04-2023, 05:22 PM
If you are undertaking a transaction involving relatives or friends, make sure you protect yourself by putting all the important terms and conditions in writing.
Even if it all looks straightforward and amiable at first, things can go awry in the best of families, and failing to have the details down on paper can be costly, especially if one party later backs out or comes up with another story about the transaction.
This was what happened to a couple and their daughter who had a falling-out over a Housing Board flat in Woodlands.
The parents sold their flat to their daughter for $410,000 in 2009, but the sale supposedly had a condition – they claimed that their daughter promised they could remain living there during their lifetime.
The parents eventually moved out in 2017 and only returned to live in what was now their daughter’s flat in 2020.
Their relationship turned sour when the daughter sold the unit in March 2022 for an undisclosed sum and told her parents that they had to move out by May that year because the buyer would be moving in.
Incensed by what they believed was a broken promise, the parents sued their daughter for $300,000 because they claimed that they had given her a $240,000 “discount” when they sold her the flat way at below the then market value.
They also wanted to recoup $60,000 for apparently helping her to clear some debts.
Even if it all looks straightforward and amiable at first, things can go awry in the best of families, and failing to have the details down on paper can be costly, especially if one party later backs out or comes up with another story about the transaction.
This was what happened to a couple and their daughter who had a falling-out over a Housing Board flat in Woodlands.
The parents sold their flat to their daughter for $410,000 in 2009, but the sale supposedly had a condition – they claimed that their daughter promised they could remain living there during their lifetime.
The parents eventually moved out in 2017 and only returned to live in what was now their daughter’s flat in 2020.
Their relationship turned sour when the daughter sold the unit in March 2022 for an undisclosed sum and told her parents that they had to move out by May that year because the buyer would be moving in.
Incensed by what they believed was a broken promise, the parents sued their daughter for $300,000 because they claimed that they had given her a $240,000 “discount” when they sold her the flat way at below the then market value.
They also wanted to recoup $60,000 for apparently helping her to clear some debts.
