A retired Taupo couple have been told they will lose their home if they do not pay $18,000 for a Blue Chip development that was never built.
Doreen and John Mather were served a Property Law Act notice by Auckland law firm Sanderson Weir on Wednesday, claiming they were six months in arrears on interest payments for a $351,000 mortgage taken out by Tasman Mortgages.
The letter said the couple had to pay interest, plus a $1000 charge from the law firm, by September 16, Mr Mather said. "If we don't, we lose the house," The Dominion Post reported him saying.
"They want $18,000 from us and we're both on the pension and get half of that."
The couple had thought that in return for a $351,000 mortgage on the property they owned since 1989 they would receive monthly rental payments from a new apartment in Auckland's St Martin's Lane.
"It turns out the apartment was never built and the land was sold without telling anybody," Mr Mather said.
In May, Commerce Minister Lianne Dalziel said she wanted to be told of PLA notices after a 90-year-old Tauranga woman got one from the same Auckland law firm, which later apologised.
It is estimated that 80 percent of all lending to Blue Chip investors was done through Tasman Mortgages, now owned by Lombard Group, parent company of the failed Lombard Finance.
