Seller ordered to return buyer's $1.5M deposit for 2 Vancouver teardowns at centre of fraud litigation

The owner of a pair of teardown homes in Vancouver's rapidly redeveloping Oakridge neighbourhood has been ordered to refund a would-be buyer's deposit of $1.5 million.

The owner of a pair of teardown homes in Vancouver's rapidly redeveloping Oakridge neighbourhood has been ordered to refund a would-be buyer's deposit of $1.5 million.

In a decision issued Monday, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Sharon Matthews ruled that the owner – 1011066 B.C. Ltd. – was in breach of its contract to sell the properties to iFortune Homes Inc.

While the addresses of the two properties are not specified in Matthews' decision, the properties have been the subject of ongoing litigation for years. Other court decisions published online identify them as 408 and 426 W. 41st Ave.

An adjacent property – 448 W. 41st Ave. – is not owned by 1011066, but is considered a candidate for land assembly and redevelopment alongside the properties owned by 1011066, according to a B.C. Supreme Court decision from May of this year. 

All three parcels are currently home to older, single-family homes. Last year, the 448 property made headlines for an unusual $10.5-million listing that specified would-be buyers were not welcome to schedule a showing, because the home was being sold "for land value only."

The numbered company's contract to sell the properties to iFortune called for a purchase price of $16 million, with an initial deposit of $1.5 million, which iFortune paid in September 2020.

The contract initially called for a sale completion date of Dec. 15, 2020, but it was later amended multiple times to extend that date, each time with a clause setting the new date for "the first business day that was 90 days after all certificates of pending litigation had been discharged from title to the properties," according to Matthews' decision.