IVQ Landholdings: We offered to return Mr. Doyle's money last year

IVQ Landholdings: We offered to 
return Mr. Doyle's money last year

"Our settlement of land is without regard to the best use of land." ARTHUR ERICKSON

By Alex P. Vidal

The president of the beleaguered IVQ Landholdings, Inc. has denied the allegations of client, Thomas "Tom" Patrick Joseph Doyle, that they committed fraud when both parties entered into a contract to sell for Doyle's purchase of a subdivision lot in Arevalo district in Iloilo City in 2011.
Ian Eric Pama, who is also president of Valiant Bank, IVQ Landholdings, Inc. sister company, said they even wanted to refund the P348,285 as downpayment paid by Doyle and his wife Mesalie for the lot known as Block 4, Lot 7 of Princedale Residences located at Yulo Street since last year.
"But it was Mr. Doyle who wanted to proceed with the deal and was insisting on a 10-year payment period without interest," Pama told this writer over the phone yesterday (March 5) morning. "We would lose if we agree on that scheme."
Pama promised to present their own documents this morning (March 6) "to show who is telling the truth."
Pama's statement came about three weeks after the Housing Land Use and Regulatory Board (HLURB) regional office ordered his company engaged in the development and sales of subdivision lots to refund the Doyle couple "within 30 days from receipt hereof, the amount of P348,285.00 without interest."

CANCELLED

HLURB also cancelled or rescinded the contract to sell dated November 27, 2012.
The lot's purchase prize was P1,741,425 as contained in the contract to sell dated Nov. 27, 2012 signed by Pama, Doyle, Mesalie, witnesses Winie Gopio and Beverly Vargas and notarized by Atty. Mary Milagros Hechanova.
"Even in the HLURB, Mr. Doyle was insisting on his own scheme supposedly contained in the contract to sell signed only by Mr. Doyle and his wife," Pama explained. "We have our own documents to present and we will prove Mr. Doyle wrong."
The contract referred to by the Doyle couple was not signed by Pama and not notarized, observed Pama's counsel, Atty. GV Eutiquio Cunada, in a letter dated June 18, 2013 to Doyle's former counsel, Atty. Rey Canindo.

VERSION

Cunada called the Doyle couple's own version of contract to sell supposedly executed on October 10, 2011 as "misleading" and their contentions as "premature."
Doyle has refused to acknowledge the contract to sell referred to by Pama and which was ordered cancelled or rescinded by HLURB. He stuck to the October 10, 2011 version of the contract to sell.
Ironically, the Australian national of Irish descent, who now lives with his Filipino wife and daughter in Calumpang, Molo district, chided HLURB arbiter, Atty. Melchor M. Calopez, for cancelling or rescinding the November 27, 2012 contract saying "the HLURB should have penalized IVQ Landholdings, Inc for committing a fraud under the Housing and Condominium Act."
"HLURB only ordered the IVQ Landholdings to refund my downpayment but did not penalize the land developer to pay interest for my money," Doyle insisted.
The Doyle couple filed the complaint at the HLURB versus the IVQ Landholdings, Inc. represented by Pama and vice president Joel M. Nermal, to compel the land developer to honor the October 10, 2011 contract to sell and to accept the couple's monthly amortization of P11,000 for 120 months without interest. They also demanded moral damages of P200,00 from Pama's company.

HONOR

The complaint came after IVQ Landholdings, Inc. refused to honor the P11,000 check paid by the Doyle couple as initial monthly amortization for the lot last December 5, 2012 and sent the couple a demand letter dated January 17, 2013 reminding them to settle their account within one week. 
In their defense, the land developer called as "admission against self-interest of the complainants themselves" the Doyle couple's willingness to avail of the in-house/bridge financing arrangement with IVQ Landholdings, Inc. and sister company, Valiant Bank, and their willingness to pay a monthly installment of P50,365.35 within three years.
Doyle claimed he agreed to enter into contract to sell agreement after being assured by the company's salespersons that he could avail of a loan from Valiant Bank to finance his monthly amortization.
His loan applications were denied by Valiant Bank as well as other commercial banks because he was already 76 years old and an alien. His wife did not have a steady income and lacked the capacity to pay.
Unable to find sufficient sources from other financial institutions to sustain the monthly amortization, they asked for a refund which the HLURB granted.
"The order to refund is for our advantage because in real property business, the longer that the lot is not used the more that we are in the losing end," Pama concluded.