Buyer given extra rooftop 'by mistake'
A Henderson Land subsidiary is suing the buyer of a luxury flat after she refused to return the ownership of a rooftop mistakenly assigned to her, court documents show.
Cheng Sui-chu earned an extra 1,125-square-foot rooftop at Hill Paramount, a luxury property estate in the Sha Tin Mid-levels, after lawyers for developer Bright Gold attached a flawed floor plan to the sale and purchase agreement of a duplex sold for HK$69.8 million.
The roof, which the developer said was 'erroneously' marked pink and therefore mistakenly assigned, is seven times the size the rooftop attached to the flat bought by Cheng. The mistake means that Cheng now owns two rooftops, although she has no access to the disputed space.
Bright Gold is asking the High court to rectify the floor plan and the sale and purchase agreement and exclude the roof space in question from the assignment.
According to court filings, Cheng, through her company Mega Well Development, bought Flat B on the 32nd and 33th floors of Block 1 in August. While she should have been assigned only the 159 sq ft rooftop above her duplex, she was also given the rooftop of the adjoining duplex by mistake, according to the writ.
The error was discovered by the developer's lawyers in December, four months after Cheng concluded the sale. Although Cheng cannot use the extra rooftop - it can be accessed only through the duplex on the 31st and 32nd floors - she refused to give up the property, saying the assignment had been duly executed.
But the developer, referring to the floor plan used in the provisional sale and purchase agreement, and the sales brochure, insists that it was the intention of the seller and buyer that the rooftop in question was not part of property sold to Cheng.
The developer wrote in the writ that it took legal action after the Cheng refused its demand to rectify the floor plan.
Land registry records show that the duplex beneath the rooftop in question has not been sold and is still owned by the developer.
