The son of a B.C. developer is being sued by a construction company that did millwork for financially troubled Thind Properties Ltd. that allegedly went unpaid and was backed by the son’s personal guarantee.
In a notice of civil claim dated May 22, Mercroft Construction Ltd. is seeking $111,771 plus interest of $10,493 from Paul Thind, who allegedly provided a personal guarantee for money owed to Mercroft in regard to Thind Properties’ embattled Highline project in Burnaby’s Metrotown.
Mercroft claims that on March 20, 2023, it entered into a contract with a Thind Properties subsidiary that was acting as a general contractor for Highline. The contract was for millwork and the contract price was $492,250 plus taxes.
The Port Coquitlam-based company says that it completed the required work but that it is still owed $111,771 in respect of the contract plus interest. It claims that the Thind subsidiary requested extra time to pay, a request that was allegedly granted on the condition that Paul Thind guarantee payment.
The civil claim alleges that Mercroft and Paul Thind entered into a settlement agreement on Dec. 5, 2024, in which Paul Thind personally guaranteed the payment and interest with a deadline of April 1, 2025, after which Mercroft would have the right to file and collect on a consent judgment against him.
Requests for comment were not answered Monday by Burnaby-based Thind Properties or founder Daljit Thind. Efforts to contact Paul Thind were not successful.
Paul Thind has acted as chief operating officer for Thind Properties, according to a January 2023 story by BIV about his reported $1,000 donation to Premier David Eby’s NDP leadership campaign the previous year.
The completed but partially unsold Highline project became financially distressed and was placed under receivership by a B.C. Supreme Court judge in December, after the project’s lender said it was owed hundreds of millions of dollars across multiple Thind Properties developments.
Since then, various lawsuits have surfaced in relation to the tower. These include a claim by Group Security Services Ltd. for about $145,000 for allegedly unpaid security work; a claim by Highline’s strata corporation for about $1.1 million for allegedly unpaid strata fees in respect of unsold units; and a claim by Glastech Glazing Contractors Ltd. for nearly $500,000 for allegedly unpaid subcontract work.
A response to the claim has not been filed and none of the allegations have been proven in court.
