Just nine kilometres from Melbourne's CBD, the two storey home boasts a large living room, and open plan kitchen, with ample dining space.
It has polished wooden floor boards throughout, and upstairs are two balconies, a study, a spa bath, six bedrooms and two en-suites - not bad for $1000.Father of three Zhiping Zhou says his self-built Braybrook home was seized by the Sheriff and sold without a reserve price, and without his knowledge.
More stories from Today TonightIt was sold because he had debt a $96,660. It was a debt incurred after going guarantor for a friend on a failed deal. That friend failed to pay, and is now in China.
The initial attempt to sell the house in August 2010 with a reserve failed. The Victorian Supreme court then ordered it be sold without a reserve - the Sheriff bringing down the hammer at $1000. The second highest bid was just $20.
Real Estate Agent Neil Jenman says the buyer should have a heart and give back the property to its rightful owners for a proper auction.
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“You can get any Joe in the street to pay $2000, couldn’t you, or $3000, $5000 or $10,000. It just shows you that no effort whatsoever has gone into finding anybody who wants to buy the property.”
Zhiping and wife Fay-Wa say they were unaware the house had been auctioned until they received this legal letter stating the sale was for $1000, and that this would not satisfy the debt that is owed.David Galbally QC says the $1000 sale price should never have been accepted by the Sheriff.
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“The Sheriff has a role to sell a property when there's a judgement debt, but he should sell it for a proper sum. I can't fathom how this has happened. According to court documents the house had a mortgage with Suncorp Metway for $440,000, and equity of about $210,000,” Galbally said.“If it is so under-valued he should have gone back to the court in my view, and said to the judge ‘look we've had a second auction and all I've got is $1000, what do I do now?’ And the judge wouldn’t say accept it.”
Yet buyer Ronald Geoffrey Kousal is fighting to keep it. His lawyer argues that the sale is legal, and legally it could have been sold for one cent.
Yahoo!7 News: Court asked to reverse $1000 home sale
The case continues in court, where, if this family lose, they lose everything.
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