Sladjana Opalic, with son Peter, and Jillian McDowell, with son Matt and daughters Daylin and Teegan. The Opalics and McDowells say their dreams to own their own homes have been ruined.By Paul Dunlop
RESIDENTS stung by a collapsed scheme to help them buy a home say their Great Australian Dream turned into a nightmare.
Pakenham families are among dozens of people struggling to get their finances — and their lives — back on track after ill-fated associations with a property investment firm that recently went into liquidation owing a reported $2.6 million.
Narre Warren-based company The Key Result offered a lease-to-buy arrangement that was meant to make home buying more affordable.
But rather than get a leg up the housing ladder, many people were left tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket.
About 55 home buyers and investors are believed to have been caught up in the company’s collapse.
Jillian McDowell, of Pakenham, said the scheme evaporated her and husband Shane’s savings and almost destroyed their relationship as the stress of the experience took its toll.
“We lost the house and it nearly cost us our marriage,” Mrs McDowell said.
“All we wanted was to own our own home, but it became a nightmare.”
The Key Result scheme matched potential homeowners with property investors. Often, purchasers had already been refused home finance via conventional means and jumped at the chance to buy their own home.
Purchasers said The Key Result also promised to manage their budgets.
Mrs McDowell said she and her husband paid $840 each week to The Key Result which was to take care of their house and bills and left them just $130 per week for food and other expenses.
“They made it sound extremely rosy,” Mrs McDowell said.
“It was hard, but we thought, ‘well, we’re on our way to getting our house, it will be worth it in the end’. Then the bills started to come in.”
Mrs McDowell said electricity and other utilities supposed to have been covered in their repayments had not been paid. After a few months the McDowells were receiving disconnection notices.
“Our phone and power were cut off, my husband had to work seven days a week for 18 months without a break to keep up the payments. It almost ruined us,” Mrs McDowell said.
Sladjana Opalic said she and her husband Nikolic went bankrupt because of their involvement with The Key Result. They were not the only ones, she said.
“I wish we’d never come across them,” Mrs Opalic said.
“The good old Australian dream has basically fallen to pieces for us.”
The Opalics believe they lost more than $36,000 in 18 months.
Mrs Opalic said they were repaying $330 a week with the budget drawn up by The Key Result, leaving them just $50 a week for groceries.
Melbourne-based Consumer Credit Legal Service director Carolyn Bond said The Key Result was an unusual case where the company was in between the investor and the borrower.
“It was touted as a win-win for both sides, but in reality it was a lose-win-lose,” she said.
“Consumers in this case paid a lot of money for very little. The message is if it sounds too good to be true, it generally is.”
Former director of The Key Result, Peter Scully, said there were a multitude of reasons why the system did not work.
He said the business was designed to grow by helping people, but defaulting homebuyers had eaten up the company’s cash reserves.
Mr Scully said there were still many people benefiting from the system.
“It was never a ‘rip off’ or ‘get-rich-quick scheme’,” he said.
