It is not in any way reasonable conduct for the Sherriff to allow a forced sale of a house for $1,000.
If a judgment of debt is made against someone and they refuse to pay, then the Sherriff is required to seize and sell whatever property is necessary to satisfy the debt, plus enforcement costs. The Sherriff has a duty of care to several parties: the creditor and debtor in the judgment, plus any other parties who have a lien over or other interest in any property sold. The Sherriff must take all reasonable steps to obtain fair value.
The debt judgment in this case was for $96,000. The house sold was valued at $630,000, with a mortgage of $460,000. Although it’s in a bit of a shitty area, it’s close to transport and has 6 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and a garage. The address is 2 Wirraway Place, Braybrook in Melbourne if you want to have a look. That’s between Footscray and Sunshine.
So how could any reasonable person, acting diligently and honestly, possibly believe that selling the above house for $1,000 at “auction” meets the above duties of care?
Apart from the glaringly obvious: that any real estate agent could have sold the property for well over $500,000, the sale didn’t even recover the $96,000 judgment.
Where is the mortgagee in this episode? Why haven’t they protected their interest? Surely their specific charge ranks ahead of the Sherriff?
The Sherriff’s legal defence? Not that they hadn’t done anything wrong, but that “the Sheriff's Act made the office immune from being held responsible for the outcome of such an auction”.
What a load of bullshit! The sale should be quashed, costs awarded against the Sherriff’s office and the employee sacked and probably sued by the Sherriff’s department for recovery of the legal costs.
The first impression I had on reading this article was corruption. How much was the Sherriff paid under the table? I have seen no evidence that anything like that occurred, but the sale does look suspicious.
The home owner, Zhiping Zhou is not blameless in this episode.
He has tried to portray himself in the press as a hard working immigrant, wronged by a lazy and incompetent public servant. That may well be true, but he’s also a bit shifty.
A business associate of some description had to take him to court to have him pay money he owed. He then ignored the judgment, plus multiple letters from the Sherriff demanding payment.
He seems to be trying the “No Engrish” defence, but has been here for at least several years and admitted during cross examination that he owns four other properties. He built the Wirraway Place house himself in 2007.
Looks like a shifty prick who doesn’t pay his debts.
And the bloke who bought the property for $1,000?
It’s so far cost him $119,000 to try and keep it. It would serve him right if he got none of it back.
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