Vogels upset they failed to get a house for free

reports:

Vogel House will not be returned to the Vogel family, the Crown commissioner has ruled.

The $4.1 million former ministerial home was offered to the Vogel Charitable Trust and the Wellington SPCA – both beneficiaries of Jocelyn Vogel's estate – in January, to the dismay of Jocelyn's descendants. 

Tim and Geoff Vogel, her grandsons, appealed against the decision in a bid to keep the home in which they were raised within the family. 

The Crown land commissioner announced on Thursday that the brothers' application had been declined.

“The applicants submitted that it would be equitable to allot Vogel House to them, because of their special circumstances and the hardship that it would cause if public applications were sought,” said John Hook, Crown property group manager at Land Information New Zealand (Linz).

How does it cause them hardship to not get a house which has not been in their family for 50 years?

Tim Vogel, a Wellington lawyer, said he and his brother felt they had been “shafted”, and might take the matter as far as the High Court.

“It's not over yet. This decision is subject to a judicial review, and that's certainly possible.”

He was confident he and his brother would win a judicial review, and said the supported their fight.

“Vogel House was built for the Vogels, bought for the Vogels, lived in by the Vogels.  do you think the property should go back to?”

It should go to the beneficiaries listed in Jocelyn Vogel's will.

He believed the two charities would sell the house.

As could Mr Vogel if he and his brother get it. What has that to do with things?

“My grandfather didn't even like animals, there's no way he would be leaving Vogel House to the SPCA.

A red herring. It was his grandmother's will. Is he saying that is in anyway legally relevant?

“We feel angry, we feel aggrieved, and we don't feel we have been given a fair hearing. 

“We cannot let that go unchallenged.”

Yes you can.

You want a $6 million house for nothing. Can't blame you – so would I. But stop bleating to the media and making you you are a victim.

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