On January 17, 2014, The Bowra group Inc. was appointed Receiver-Manager of the assets, understandings and properties of 830480 Alberta Inc. (the “Company” or “Riverpointe”) pursuant to an Order of the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta.

The Company was a real estate developer, developing the 173-lot subdivision in the Windermere area of south-west Edmonton, known as Riverpointe.  Prior to receivership, the Company had sold and conveyed 20 lots.

The Receiver completed construction of the development and renamed the development to Westpointe of Windermere (“Westpointe”).

On August 24, 2021, the Receiver filed an application with the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta (the “Court”) seeking directions to address the forfeiture of security deposits collected by the Company and the Receiver in conjunction with the sale of lots to ensure compliance with the architectural and landscape requirements.

Prior to receivership, the Company’s legal counsel had collected security deposits for a project called Sunset Valley Estates.  Many of these security deposits are still held by the Company’s legal counsel.

The Receiver’s legal counsel holds security deposits collected from the sale of Westpointe lots, including those security deposits collected prior to receivership that relate to Westpointe.

In order to address the forfeiture of security deposits held by both the Company’s legal counsel and the Receiver’s legal counsel, the Receiver appeared before the Court on September 3, 2021 to seek directions from the Court.

On September 3, 2021, the Court ordered that a substantive application be heard at 2pm on October 20, 2021 to address the forfeiture of security deposits.  The Court directed the Receiver and its counsel to serve all known parties that may have an interest in the security deposits.

On October 20, 2021, the Court ordered that the terms of the Restrictive Covenant in addressing the return of the architectural and landscape deposits shall be amended to state:

If the final architectural approval or final landscape approval are not obtained within 30 months from the later of (i) the date of completion of the home (as evidenced by the issuance of an occupancy permit) or (ii) 30 months from the date of this Order, any deposit pertaining to the architectural or landscape requirement shall be forfeited to the Receiver.

Please note that the amendment to the terms of the restrictive covenant does not apply to all Westpointe properties.  The affected Westpointe owners were served notice of the October 20, 2021 Court application and subsequently served a copy of the Court Order pronounced on October 20, 2021.