A West Vancouver woman who was left financially devastated after a buyer backed out of a deal to purchase her home has been awarded more than $600,000 in damages.
In a decision handed down Aug. 3, Justice Linda Loo of the B.C. Supreme Court ordered Christopher Gulston to pay Susan Aldred $614,000 for walking away from a deal to buy her Mathers Avenue home in March 2008 for $1.57 million.
By then Aldred had already made a deal to buy a new house.
"(Gulston) knew that she was relying on the proceeds of sale from her house to finance the purchase of her new house," wrote the judge.
By reneging on the deal, Gulston's actions left Aldred in deep financial quicksand, owning two houses and with a debt of more than $1.6 million.
Aldred eventually sold the house to another buyer for $500,000 less than what Gulston had agreed to pay, but remained in significant debt.
She and her young children were forced to share a bedroom so she could rent out other rooms in her home to boarders, just to make the payments, the judge noted. She added Aldred hasn't been able to buy birthday or Christmas presents for her kids for three years.
Aldred's remaining debt of $650,000 has meant "she cannot afford the basic necessities like prescriptions, medications, vitamins, clothes and activities," wrote the judge.
Loo said Aldred lost her business and had her credit rating affected by the housing deal going sour. For the past year, she has been trying to sell her current house "and expects to incur a loss," the judge said.
According to court documents, Gulston originally signed a contract to buy Aldred's house at 2304 Mathers Ave. for $1.57 million on March 2, 2008 and paid a deposit of $105,000. The deal was to be finalized on April 22, 2008.
Gulston later asked for two extensions, eventually settling on a completion date of Aug. 30 for the deal.
In the meantime, a buried oil tank was discovered on the property and Aldred agreed to remove it and remediate the soil.
In August of that year, Gulston's lawyer wrote to Aldred saying Gulston wasn't going to go ahead with the deal because of "massive adverse publicity relating to the soil contamination", among other reasons.
Gulston instead offered to buy the property for $500,000 less than the original deal. Aldred refused.
Loo ordered Gulston to pay Aldred damages of $614,000 for breach of contract, including $570,000 for losses on the sale minus the deposit, plus further amounts for debt and bridge financing, along with $20,000 for mental distress.
Last January, the former owners of the Mathers Avenue property were also ordered to pay damages to Aldred for giving her the impression a buried oil tank on the lot had been decommissioned or removed when that wasn't true. Aldred was later faced with a $200,000 bill to remove the tank and clean up resulting environmental pollution.
