Traders press on with claim
28 Jun 2011
Despite missing a deadline to lodge their claim, 23 disaffected NewQuay traders say they are proceeding with their VCAT case against MAB Corporation.
On June 27 lawyer Frank Guastalegname said he had only just been engaged by the group, but he intended to seek permission to lodge their claim.
The traders had been given until June 1 to present their claim against MAB. The traders allege that MAB is charging excessive precinct management fees and has not been transparent with them about where the money has been spent.
MAB denies this and says it welcomes the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal action as an opportunity to clear the air.
Mr Guastalegname said he attended a meeting of 22 traders and they had agreed to pool their resources to fund the action. Subsequently, another had joined the action, he said.
Mr Guastalegname said he would need more time to get across the detail of the claim before speaking in any detail.
However, he said it was obvious that traders who owned their premises would have a different claim to traders who rented their premises.
Mr Guastalegname said he hoped to be able to present material to a directions hearing which had been set down for July 13.
On April 13, VCAT granted 20 traders permission to proceed to the next stage in their case against Metro Real Estate Services. It set the June 1 deadline and gave MAB until July 6 to respond in anticipation of a directions hearing on July 13.
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