Property News

Agent fined $100,000 over sale of Hoges' house

03 October 2006

The real estate agent who sold Paul Hogan's Sydney harbourside home for $11 million has been forced to pay $100,000 in damages after a judge found he misled the buyer about the property's waterfront access.

Shaun Bonett, 35, one of the nation's youngest multi-millionaire property tycoons, sued the Barron and Dowling Property Group and agent Tony Barron for more than $2 million three months after he bought the five-bedroom Vaucluse home in June 2004 and discovered it was not a "deep waterfront" with uninhibited access to Sydney Harbour as promised.

But he won only $100,000 after the NSW Supreme Court this week found the agent, based in the eastern suburb of Double Bay, deceived him into believing he would own the foreshore at the rear of the house, when in reality it was waterside parkland.

The agent was also found to have exaggerated the size of the block on which the home was built by nearly 20 per cent.

Documents tendered to the court show that lawyers for Hogan and his wife Linda Kozlowski were aware when they bought the property that it was just 1110sqm, rather than the 1366sqm used to promote the home in 2003, and that a rocky waterside strip was public land.

Judge Paddy Bergin found Mr Bonett was not misled about the likelihood he could build a jetty for his boat.

Mr Barron said yesterday he planned to appeal against the decision.

Mr Bonett, a property developer originally from Adelaide, debuted at No3 on BRW's Young Rich List this year with an estimated wealth of $250 million.

He is chief executive, founder and owner of property company Precision Group, which has about $1 billion in property assets in Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane.

The home, on one of the eastern suburbs' most exclusive streets, The Crescent, was bought for him to live in after his opulent wedding to 27-year-old former model Vanessa Baron two years ago.

The Hogans bought the house through Mr Barron in March 2002 for $8.5 million, and made a $2.5 million profit on the sale to Mr Bonett two years later.

Hogan, 66, is under investigation for allegedly holding $40million in secret trusts and offshore companies administered in Switzerland and not declared to the tax office.

The court heard Mr Hogan's accountant and financial adviser, Anthony Stewart, contacted Mr Barron to advise him the Hogans were interested in selling the property in a "quiet sale".

Hogan has quietly sold more than $13 million worth of residential property in the past two years.