THE 80-year-old woman trying to block the collective sale of her Napier Road estate mounted a feisty argument before the Strata Titles Board yesterday.
Madam Chow Ai Hwa spent more than three hours cross-examining two witnesses put forward by other owners of the 40-year-old Eng Lok Mansion.
The estate was sold in March for $138 million, then a record price for a collective sale.
But the former nurse feels she will not be able to buy a similar unit in the Napier Road area with the money from the deal.
She also believes the distribution of the proceeds is unfair - owners of all 64 units will each get $2.156 million, even though some apartments are bigger than others.
Last month, she urged two tribunal members - Mr Tay Kah Poh and Mr Alfonso Ang - to disqualify themselves on the basis of a conflict of interest.
Both declined.
Her subsequent application to the High Court for them to be disqualified was dismissed last week.
More than 10 flat owners turned up yesterday at the case's second hearing, hoping for a decision. But they left disappointed as proceedings dragged on for the whole day.
Just as at the first hearing, Madam Chow - who was not represented by a lawyer - turned up with a trolley full of documents.
Speaking mostly in Mandarin, she spent more than an hour grilling valuer Chng Shih Hian from Chesterton International, whose firm valued Eng Lok Mansion earlier this year.
Madam Chow had claimed in her affidavit to the board that properties in the Tanglin area can fetch $3,000 per square foot, which would work out to $4.7 million for each owner.
She said yesterday that Mr Chng was 'not professional' and that 'you have suppressed our value'.
The widow, who was accompanied by her daughter, often repeated her questions, causing Mr Ang to intervene: 'If you ask him the same question 10 times, you will get the same answer 10 times, and we will have to be here for 10 days.'
When Eng Lok sales committee member Francis Lim, 70, took the stand, Madam Chow asked him why her earlier proposal to have the owners redevelop the estate themselves was not considered.
Mr Lim replied that many owners felt the plan was almost impossible to carry out.
According to Mr David De Souza, the lawyer acting for the Eng Lok owners who signed the collective deal, the sale must be completed by March 31 next year.
The tribunal will make a decision on Madam Chow's case after next Monday - the deadline for submissions from both sides.
If Madam Chow loses, she will have to move out of her home of four decades, where she currently lives alone.
tanhy@sph.com.sg
