FABULOUS RENTS FOR SYDNEY FLATS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 218, 3 December 1927, Page 26 (Supplement)

FABULOUS RENTS FOR SYDNEY FLATS

INVESTORS’ BAD BARGAIN

The story of how a woman and her two daughters came from the country, leased tho Maison-Michel Flats, Darlinghurst, for five years, at £4O a week, with an increase to £45 a week at the end of six months, and then found that they had made what they regarded as a bad bargain, was told before Mr. Justice James and a jury of four in Sydney last we-ek. The plaintiffs were Mrs. Henrietta Fitzpatrick and her daughters, Mary Eleanor Fitzpatrick arid Adelia Fitzpatrick, and they sought to recover £5,000 damages from Victor John Francis Michel, for alleged breach of warranty and fraudulent misrepresentation. Their story was that, last October, Mrs. Fitzpatrick and her two daughters souglit a business investment. They made inquiries regarding flats from Messrs. Madden and Burrell, estate agents, Bayswater Road, Darlinghurst, who brought under their notice the Maison-Michel Flats, then under construction. They were offered a lease of the flats at £4O a week, but they recoiled at tho price. It was alleged that the agent then said, “You would be surprised at the number of wealthy people there are about Sydney. People will pay fabulous prices for flats.” They were also told, it was said, that Mr. Rich, managing director for Bebarfald’s, had taken one of the flats for three years, and that a. doctor was going to take another. But, when they took the lease and entered into possession, they found that Mr. Rich did not take a flat, but that Mr. Michel, the defendant, did. It was alleged that subsequently the defendant sold the flats at a fine profit to Edward Moon, the jockey, the sal® being largely influenced by the fact of the lease to Mrs. Fitzpatrick. On plaintiff's behalf it was alleged that the flats were not worth more than £3O a week, and that defendant had admitted to plaintiff that the agent had induced her to pay far more than the investment was worth. Defendant pleaded that he did not promise as alleged.