Terry Serepisos' mum ordered to pay finance firm $322k

Tuesday, 27 March 2018

The apartment in question is the Maison Cabriole Apartments penthouse, which can be seen in the background with a green balcony.

A finance company has won its battle against Terry Serepisos' mother to claw back more than quarter of a million dollars it is owed in loan repayments.

General Finance sold Alliki Serepisos' leaky Wellington apartment for $580,000 in May 2016 through a mortgagee sale, to recover costs from her loan defaults. Despite the sale, there was still money owing to General Finance.

Alliki Serepisos claims there was a higher offer that was ignored, and some chattels (worth about $15,000) were sold when they should not have been.

On Monday, High Court Judge Rebecca Ellis ruled she got the best price for the apartment, and the sale of the chattels were justified.

Terry Serepisos, the former Wellington Phoenix owner and property developer, lived in the apartment his mother owned.

* Terry Serepisos' mum Alliki Serepisos being chased for debts to finance company**

'The reality is that she borrowed nearly half a million dollars and made not one repayment under the loan,' Ellis said.

'There is a suggestion that she attempted to meet her commitments at an early stage but then fell into arrears, only to become overwhelmed by the rapid accrual of default interest.'

Last year, General Finance went to the High Court seeking summary judgement to recover $295,000 from Alliki Serepisos over an unpaid loan secured by mortgage it previously held over a penthouse apartment she owned, which her son, Terry, had been living in.

Associate Judge Warwick Smith ordered Serepisos to pay $50,000 and told General Finance it would have to go to trial to recover the outstanding amount.

Smith ruled Serepisos might have an arguable defence in regards to General Finance failing to obtain the best price for the apartment.

Paula Muollo was the agent in charge of selling Alliki Serepisos' Tory St apartment.

Her argument was that the real estate agent appointed to sell the apartment did not pursue a potential buyer.

General Finance appointed estate agent Paula Muollo, who is also a former Miss New Zealand pageant runner-up, to sell the apartment in 2014.

Numerous offers fell through over an 18-month period, before the apartment eventually sold for $580,000.

According to Terry Serepisos, when the $580,000 offer was on the table, he met with a Mr Chin, who had discussed offering up to $800,000. But Chin wanted to view the apartment.

Terry Serepisos claims Muollo told them she did not have keys to the apartment as the company had changed the locks, however General Finance insisted she had the new set of keys.

Serepisos believed General Finance 'sabotaged' the Chin offer, but the firm argued Chin had not made a formal offer, he only expressed interest.

'In my view, the preponderance of evidence strongly supports the conclusion the [General Finance] did not have, and could not have had, knowledge of Mr Chin's interest prior to the unconditional sale of the property,' Ellis said.

'So putting to one side the fact that Mr Chin never made a genuine, firm, unconditional offer, and the fact that the $800,000 figure was mentioned without sighting the property, he had not even foreshadowed any such offer prior to [the unconditional sale date].'

Ellis ordered Alliki Serepisos to pay $322,284 to General Finance, plus costs.

Terry Serepisos, the former Wellington Phoenix owner and property developer, was declared bankrupt in 2011. He was discharged from bankruptcy in 2014.