Bay couple successfully sue daughter

Marian Warin. Photo: Facebook.

A Tauranga couple who successfully sued their daughter for an outstanding loan are to have just under $368,000 paid to them.

Colleen Warin said the money borrowed from her parents Marian and Trevor Warin was only to be repaid as her circumstances allowed, reports Stuff.

But an associate judge in the High Court at Wellington has found Colleen Warin failed to pay, despite repeated requests, and had no defence to the claim for $367,903.90.

In a Facebook post, Marian Warin says people need to be aware of even their own children.

'My daughter Colleen told me after taking our money that "I am not her mother" . I slaved picking tomatoes and worked all my life for my money.

'We also bought Wayne a house and did it up and he is also not paying his father and me properly,” the post continues.

'In fact they both drove me out of my own home. I am staying with my other son Nigel in Australia till it's all sorted out.”

Marian Warin had explained in her evidence that she and her husband had trusted their daughter, and she was a chartered accountant. The couple had built up some money through farming, but were naive about financial matters, she said.

REQUESTS TO REPAY

In his decision on the Warin case, Associate Judge Warwick Smith said the parents first asked for the money back in 2012. They asked again in 2015 and, when it was not repaid, a court claim was filed.

The judge said the terms of the loan were never recorded in writing. Colleen Warin, who did her parents' tax statements and gave them financial advice, said it was never agreed that the money was repayable on demand.

The start of the dealing went back more than 20 years, to 1996, when the Warins transferred first a half-share, and then the whole, of their Te Puke property to Colleen.

"HOME FOR LIFE"

In return they received an acknowledgement that she owed them $100,000, and an apparently oral agreement that she would build a "home for life" for them on the property.

The house was built and the judge said the outcome of the transaction was that they had effectively sold the property to their daughter for $100,000, plus rent-free occupation of the house.

In 2011, the land was subdivided and the house the Warins were living in was sold, so they moved to the remaining part of the land. Then that was sold too.

LOSS OF INCOME

The parents moved to another Te Puke property they owned, so that in their 80s they lost the retirement income they had been receiving from it.

They also lent Colleen $141,000 to pay a GST debt incurred as a complication of the sale process. Then, between 2010 and 2014, they lent her another $126,154.20 in 23 instalments.

Colleen Warin agreed the money was a loan, but said it was not repayable on demand, and that no valid demand was made. The judge rejected those arguments.

FINANCIAL STRESS

She said she had been under financial and other stress, including the end of her marriage in 2012, and had been unable to pay. In mid-2016, after her parents had begun the court case against her, she wrote to them saying she would dearly like to repay but could not.

She had understood that, until she had repaid half the money, she would receive nothing more from her parents' trust, or their deceased estates, she said.

Any money not repaid before her parents' trust was wound up – any time up to 2062 – would be offset against anything she was to receive as a beneficiary of the trust.

- Additional reporting from Stuff.co.nz

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7 comments

I know about this sort of thing

Posted on 10-05-2017 15:31 | By old trucker

a family member owes me several thousand of dollars, its funny how they think you are made of money, and as above think they should never pay it back,well i have news for them, and its all bad,its unfair and cannot get help with this as person concerned will say cannot afford it, well nor could we, but we helped and this is what you get,so PARENTS DO NOT LOAN TO FAMILY,Believe me, No 1 us Sunlive for News,you people are AWESOME,Thankyou, 10-4.


How disgusting! ..

Posted on 10-05-2017 16:32 | By Linaire

I feel so sorry for Marian and Trevor Warin, who probably thought they were helping their daughter. How wrong they were. They have lost hundreds of thousands and were totally ripped off! And this daughter is a chartered accountant?! Wow, really? There is a big lesson here for all of us ... if you are going to lend money to your adult children, have the whole thing put in writing and run past a lawyer. This sort of thing happens way too often.


Sinister

Posted on 11-05-2017 08:32 | By Papamoaner

This goes deeper than we might first appreciate. Many young people these days have no sense of loyalty. Not only can they not be trusted by employers, but it now seems to be encroaching into family situations. There is something seriously wrong with our modern way of teaching small kids basic values. Conversely, many are well brought up and have good values, but there seems to be an increasing imbalance between the two types. All part of the gradual break down of society as we know it.


Maths does not add up

Posted on 11-05-2017 12:14 | By jed

The reports say the parents saved a nest egg of 3 million dollars. They gave 380,000 to their child. So, by my math this would mean they still have over 2.5 million, yet all of the stories on this situation say that they are destitute and living off a pension alone. Has anyone else noticed this? The daughter has behaved very badly in any case.


Papamoaner

Posted on 11-05-2017 12:17 | By jed

Ancient greek philosophers have stated the same thing as you ... yet , here we are. Young people are no different today than they were back when you were young. Most are good, some are bad , some lazy, some hard working.


@Jed

Posted on 11-05-2017 14:05 | By Papamoaner

Yes, I guess you are right. We just notice it more because we are older. Time is a good example. When we are 1 year old, that's 100% of our life. When we reach 100 years old, a year is only 1%.Behavioural perceptions might well follow a similar exponential curve. All that aside, kids who are lucky enough to have a role model at a young age, probably do better.


The only safe way...

Posted on 13-05-2017 14:51 | By GreertonBoy

To make a loan to a family member is with a proper contract. Contracts are everything these days... if you loan your mower or trailer to your neighbour, you really need a contract stating it will be returned in good condition in a certain time period. Unfortunately, loans between family members without a written contract are really gifts.... so I guess it would be safe to say, don't lend ANYONE ANYTHING that you cant afford/don't want to loose. This case proves to me what I have thought for a long time.... that the younger generation, in general, seem to be more interested in the inheritance, than the wellbeing of their parents. I agree Jed, where is the remaining $2.6M? I say... spend the inheritance and enjoy it.... It is good the courts have awarded the parents the money, slim chance they will ever see it tho....


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