Mehrab-Khani Pays Up!

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.

Mehrab-Khani Sued By His Own Lawyer!

Yet again, Soheil Mehrab-Khani is being sued for non payment. The lawyer that defended him in court over the case of acquiring finance through deception and who also threatened me with defamation over this web site, Mr. Gunston, is sueing Mehrab-Khani for non payment of fees totalling $13261-00.

This is causing great amusement in Hobart legal circles, I am told. Presumably, Mehrab-Khani didn't screw up his face and put in inches away from Mr. Gunston and told him he wouldnt be paid as he did with painter Jason Lumley and a plasterer whose name I am with holding because he requested to not be named.

Interestingly, Mehrab-Khani engaged Town Planner Kate Loveday and the legal firm of Abetz Curtis to represent him at the Tribunal. Both parties worked for him for a period of several weeks before the Tribunal, then dropped out, no longer working for him! I would guess they have not been paid either, and I wouldn't be surprised if Mehrab-Khani is sued by them in the near future.

Immigration Department Visits Again

The Department Of Immigration is looking up Mehrab Khani in Google today. The log files show that they typed in "Soheil Mehrab Khani" into the Google search engine and ended up this blog, looking around for 10 minutes.

The blog in now #1 on Google if you type in Mehrab Khani, this is what the #1 signifies on the log file below.

A thought occurs -- Mehrab-Khani mentioned in the Anti - Discrimination hearing (which I reported at the time and due to resume in August, I think) that he would offer to be deported to Sudan or Zimbabwe if it was found that he was a liar. The Mercury picked this up too:

It's possible that the Department of Immigration is trying to help him get his things together for the move.

Mehrab-Khani Convicted Over 4 Building Charges

Mehrab-Khani was in court to be sentenced over 4 building charges brought against him by Hobart City Council. The HCC case was lackluster, but even so Mehrab-Khani was fined a total of $1240 plus costs.

I was out of the country at the time of the sentencing, however it was covered by The Mercury newspaper. It seems that The Mercury is keenly following all court cases involving Mehrab-Khani, probably because of his behaviour in court, such as shouting over the magistrate or raving on in a nearly incomprehensible way and making outrageous comments and allegations.

I will post the outcome of the Tribunal as soon as it is known.

At Tribunal Against HCC and Mehrab-Khani

The Tribunal took place over 2 days, the 19th and 20th of May. The day before HCC prosecuted Mehrab-Khani for building breaches of Unit 1, one of the issues being setback, the next day we were in Tribunal and they changed sides now wanting the setback approved.

This Tribunal is partly the result of another Tribunal in 2005 which ordered additional setback and which has subsequently been ignored. In a hearing 8 weeks ago, Mehrab-Khani's Engineer Chris Potter was asked by what measurement was the setback incorrect?

"I thought it was right," answered Mr. Potter!!

So from that we can assume he had no idea what the setback on the plans were supposed to signify.

I will NOT report on these proceedings until the report is finished by the Tribunal members, which will be 9th June at the latest.

However, I will mention one part of the Tribunal when I was in the witness chair. Mr. Potter decided to ask me some questions.

"Look at this picture, says Potter. It's Unit 2 correct?"
"Yes", I say.
"The windows in Unit 2 have been approved under the permit scheme, and they can overlook your property just as much as Unit 1, isn't that correct?"

"The windows have not been approved. They have just been put in illegally and I have notified Ross Willis of Council. You would have received an email about it last week!", I said not believing my ears.

Obviously Potter has no idea what has been approved or not.

He tries again.
"The windows have been approved under the permit scheme", he says again, as if repeating something makes it true.

"Absolute nonsense", I say. "They have not been approved, they are not on the plans, they are illegal. Check the plans"

Silence. Then the sounds of plans being flicked thru as Tribunal members look for the original approved plans.

Red faced, Potter finds the drawing which shows wooden slats half way up....and says, "OK so there are slats half way up...but you can still see out of them!"

He totally lost credibility by not even knowing what on his own plans.

Here is the letter I received a few weeks ago from Ross Willis of Council where Council agree with me that the windows are not approved.

I got stuck into Potter over his sun diagram too. He shows me a sun/shadow diagram done my his brother, the aptly named David Gavan Jack Potter going by the name DGJ Potter. The extension part of my house which is the subject of sunlight loss, was not even drawn on the diagram!

So Chris Potter is getting me to look at a sun diagram of my house where my house isn't in the diagram.

"These are shonky diagrams", I said. "I don't accept them, and they don't match the 5 other sun diagrams I have in my possession from the last 6 years."

Silence.

Potter tries a different tack.
But you knew Council always said you would lose sunlight."

"Absolute nonsense",  I said. "Every Council representative 5 years ago said normal sunlight would ensue after 10.30am. Neil Noye from HCC said it too."

"Neil Noye said some unfortunate things", tries Potter.
"Well Council Planner Clare Hester said it too", I shouted (I was shouting by this point, not believing the absurdity of what I was hearing.)

At that point he wasn't going to ask me anymore questions, and that was that. So it appears Mr. Chris Potter does not know about setback, or what has been approved, yet he is responsible for making Unit 1 compliant.

Here is what Council said about sunlight 5-6 years ago. This seems to have been buried and Potter and Council obviously hoped it had all been forgotten.

Neil Noye said normal sunlight after 10.30, Planner Clare Hester said it would be normal after 10.00am, see below.

And Consultant Planner Kate Loveday said that the reduction would be minimal and within TASCORD guidelines. That's not true either.

More will follow when the Tribunal results are out. This interchange was just between me and Chris Potter. Tony came out firing and there was a wonderful cross examination of DGJ Potter.

HCC charges Mehrab-Khani Over Building Breaches

Court Room 1 on the 18th of May 2011 -- Mehrab-Khani is back in Court to face 4 charges from Hobart City Council relating to various building breaches.

Two of the building breaches related to the collapsed retaining wall on the boundary of Melville street, specifically failure to notify the owner of protection work and failure to carry out protection work.

The end result was the collapse of the retaining wall, with a neighbours shed hanging precariously in space, being supported by a pole which could collapse at any time. The maximum penalties for these charges are $6500 and $13000 respectively.

The other 2 charges related to building breaches on Unit 1 next door to my property which is the subject of a Tribunal. One of the charges included the fact that the building was built too close to my boundary, the exact same issue that Council changed sides on the very next day at Tribunal .

On Wednesday at Court HCC prosecuted Khani for setback (amongst other things), on Thursday at the Tribunal HCC took sides with Khani and argued against me that setback should be approved!!


(No, I am not making this up and Yes, it is incomprehensible and No, I can't think of any other business that could get away with this type of misuse of power.)

Maximum penalties for the building breaches to Unit 1 were $65000 and $13000 (no, that isn't a typo, it's $65000!).

Mehrab-Khani changed his plea to Guilty on all four charges. He will be sentenced on Wed 25 of May at 2.00pm. It was noted he has prior convictions.

The Mercury newspaper will be there on the day reporting the sentence. Mehrab-Khani was entertaining as ever in Court, shouting abuse at Tony Jacobs (and I even got 2 mentions from him) and saying things like, "You should be sueing the ANZ Bank, not me."

Some other gems (I was writing as fast as I could) were "These sorts of things happen" and "I didn't commit Murder" to "I have an email from Tony Jacobs saying if you pay me $1000 a day I will leave you alone. Do you think that is fair?" and "This state is corrupt" to "ABC and 4 Corners has approached me to comment over these matters" to "This is all the fault of Tony Jacobs and his mate (looking at me) and his mate Magistrate Webster."

LJ Hooker Visits Bathurst Street.

Last Thursday a visitor in a suit appeared on site. On Friday he came back with a female. I took a few photos and then using some brilliant software called Photozoom, I was able to blow the photo's up.

This allowed me to just make out the Nobody Does It Better slogan on the yellow folder. So it was LJ Hooker! Which is very interesting because Unit 1 is basically locked up pending a Tribunal which takes place this Thursday 19th May, and the back Units 2,3 and 4 are not habitable till the collapsed retaining wall at the rear is repaired.

Mehrab-Khani brought it down with his excavations but refuses to repair it, leaving the neighbours shed hanging precariously in space with a pole tentatively holding it up.

So the question is, is he attempting to sell the half developed site (surely an act of desperation), or is he hoping to perhaps pre-sell the units?

Time will tell. On Wed 18th May he is back in Court to face 4 charges of various building breaches. I will be there along with Tony Jacobs and will be reporting back.

The next day, Thursday 19th May is the long awaited Tribunal, with myself against Mehrab-Khani and Hobart City Council. Neil Noye from HCC stated that this should "rightfully be tested at Tribunal". A decision from that is expected by 9th June.

I will report the Tribunal results here as well. Stay posted. This is what it has all come down to.

The aforementioned Photozoom which I really like is here:
http://www.benvista.com/photozoompro