Article content continued

Following Wednesday’s court order, B.C.’s Office of the Superintendent of Real Estate issued a public consumer alert, asking Murrayville homebuyers to call the Superintendent’s office and contact a lawyer “to fully understand their legal rights and remedies with respect to their purchase agreements.”

Murrayville was already the subject of an emergency order last month from Superintendent of Real Estate Micheal Noseworthy, ordering Chandler to immediately stop marketing the development, citing “a serious concern and a likelihood that the developer has sold one or more (Murrayville condo units) to more than one purchaser.” At least two lawsuits have already been filed on behalf of dozens of Murrayville homebuyers.

Mario Mainella, Bowra Group’s senior vice-president overseeing the Murrayville file, said the case was “extremely unusual” in some respects.

“When it gets to the point where a receiver’s appointed, there’s usually a number of problems,” Mainella said.

It’s much more common to see a receiver appointed to take over an incomplete, partly built project, he said, something that occurred after the 2008 financial crisis. It’s far less common to see a receiver appointed to take over a completed development like Murrayville.

But even though occupancy permits were issued for Murrayville in August, there are still a number of hurdles that exist before any sales can complete, considering the complex tangle of legal disputes and regulatory actions now facing Chandler and his project.

“Based on the feedback we’ve received from a number of the lenders and some of the legal counsel representing numerous presale purchasers,” Mainella said, “they lost faith in the developer.”

Murrayvile condo presale purchasers are encouraged to contact the Bowra Group at 604-689-8939.

“We’re just in an information gathering period,” Mainella said. “We have to do our investigation and our analysis to determine where things are at, because there’s a lot of moving parts here.”

dfumano@postmedia.com

twitter.com/fumano