Staff reporter
From:The Daily Telegraph
June 01, 2012 9:41AM
EMMY award-winning Aussie actress Toni Collette could be forced to pay an $850,000 non-performance claim over her alleged failure to settle on a five-bedroom Sydney residence.
The property dispute before the NSW Supreme Court started in October after 39-year-old Collette and her husband, musician Dave Galafassi, signed a contract to buy the double-fronted $6.35 million terrace, but then pulled out of what would have been a landmark sale for the area.
The owners - Susie and Nick Kelly, CEOs of men's clothing label Industrie - have now resold the house for a much more modest $5.5 million and are suing the couple for the difference.
Collette and Galafassi are yet to enter a defence for their alleged contractual non-performance.
PropertyObserver.com.au says the matter will go back to court next week, when the claim is expected to be updated to $850,000.
The pair - who have two children, Sage, 4, and Arlo, 1 - have had a bad run on the real estate market recently.
After struggling to sell their Bronte cottage, which they bought for $4.4 million in 2009, they finally agreed to let it go for $3.5 million.
The couple then settled for an undisclosed amount on their $1.32 million Spanish-style LA home.
Instead of buying the Sydney house in Paddington, Collette and Galafassi ended up settling not far from their Bronte house, with a reported $5.5 million purchase.
This is a fairly common topic so I thought it should be mentioned.