Gunson vs Khani
Soheil Mehrab-Khani fronted the office at court last week in the case Gunson vs Khani. You'll recall that Mehrab-Khani's own lawyer, Mr. Gunson, was sueing him for non-payment.
Mehrab-Khani had filed a defence but ended up paying the full amount due to Mr. Gunston as well as Court costs.
The money paid was $13 261 and it is believed Court Filing Fee was $116.20, Service Fee $84 and Lawyer costs $530.40 making a grand total of just under $14 000.
Anti-Discrimination Tribunal resumes.
On August 15th the Anti-Discrimination complaint of Mehrab-Khani against Tony Jacobs resumes at Liverpool St Court, probably Court 6. It will run till the 16th at least, I am told.
Tony advises me he expects to carry on the cross examination of Mehrab-Khani for another 2 days, getting down to some real nitty gritty issues which is certain to to be well worth attending for anyone with spare time on those days.
The Court is open to the public and Tony and myself will be counting and timing Mehrab-Khani's outburts and tirades during the proceedings.
Tribunal Outcome
The Tribunal was a partial success for us, in that an illegal deck and windows overlooking our property are not allowed to be built, and the gaping hole has to be sealed up to a height of 1.7 metres, leaving only a small strip of windows at that height to maintain privacy.
This is a third world country type of scenario to have a balcony 900mm off the boundary with full views into our property. I lived in Africa for many years, and this is primitive building. Two Real Estate Agents have confirmed that this issue was the single most damning one, and that it would have wreaked the most havoc on the value of our property!
The Council lawyer Kirsten Turner calls it a "minor modification." This shows what the Council attitude is when they play with peoples lives with bad planning practices.
They can destroy the value of a property instantly, and call it a minor modification -- one that can only be remedied by "rightfully testing it at Tribunal", as HCC Neil Noye says, and spending thousands and thousands of dollars in the process.
Is it any wonder HCC allow the newly built building (below) to jut right into the historic 1879 Cascade Brewery building??
A brilliant bit of planning, can you get any closer to the sandstone?
Talking about being too close -- the breach of setback of Unit 1 was deemed to be fine, in effect ignoring the earlier Tribunals finding about this 5 years ago.
Hobart City Council Seek Costs from Mehrab-Khani.
Council lawyer Kirsten Turner has applied for costs against Mehrab-Khani in relation to Unit 1:
I am instructed to seek an order that the Respondent, Soheil Mehrab-Khani, pay the Council’s costs of and incidental to the application in accordance with order 3 of application A18/2010 dated 29 September 2010. If an order for costs is opposed, I would request a period of 14 days to file submissions in support of the application.
