Richard Albarran.
Stewart Wilkinson of Blackbird First Mortgage Corporation is a lucky man. There’s not too many lenders who can so consistently obtain consents from Hall Chadwick’s head partner Richard Albarran, the force behind Hall Chadwick’s global expansion.
Nevertheless it’s almost as if when Blackbird calls, Albarran, like an ardent suitor appears, frequently to take the role of receiver over assets pledged by those whose store of luck or wisdom is so depleted they agree to borrow despite the intimidating terms Blackbird offers.
In Blackbird First Mortgage Corporation Pty Ltd v Cam Engineering & Construction Pty Ltd [2026] NSWSC 876, which involved an application by the last resort lender for judgment and for possession of a defaulting borrower’s property, we see Albarran wearing two hats.
Initially Albarran agreed to act as an Investigating Accountant (IA) after Blackbird, in which Albarran’s believed to have an interest, came up against some borrowers who chose to quibble with the lender’s claims for IA and legal expenses.
In his judgment Justice Edward Muston recounts correspondence between Blackbird and Hall Chadwick that Blackbird put into evidence. His honour was unimpressed.
“The evidence includes a letter from Hall Chadwick to Blackbird Private Equity Pty Ltd dated 27 August 2024 which, on its face, purports to relate to the appointment of Richard Albarron (sic) of Hall Chadwick to act as an investigating accountant in respect of Cam Engineering,” the judge said.
“The defendants placed some reliance on the fact that Hall Chadwick’s letter was addressed to a different lender; little turns on this fact.
“However, beyond proffering an estimate of fees “in the vicinity of $40,000-$50,000”, the Hall Chadwick letter does little to substantiate the claim made by Blackbird for “IA Fees”, and “The evidence was otherwise silent as to the work done by Hall Chadwick or the fees charged in connection with any such work,” he said.
The claims in respect of Albarran’s work as an IA were contained in loan account statements Wilkinson annexed to his affidavit.
Those statements recorded amounts of $33,000 and $68,892.76, each of which were described as “IA Fees” and show Albarran’s estimate of $40,000 to $50,000 was so short of the mark as to be pointless.
Wilkinson claimed Blackbird paid the fees and was entitled to recover them from the borrowers but with such unexplained discrepancies, it’s no wonder these claims were resisted and the judge agreed, saying that at this stage the borrowers weren’t required to pay.
Subsequent to the IA engagement Albarran and Hall Chadwick colleague Brent Kijurina were appointed as receivers of the secured property but also bugging the judge was the lack of justification for Blackbird’s doubling of the interest rate charged upon the event of default.
Such was the absence of evidence that the judge agreed that Blackbird had the onus of demonstrating why a doubling to 48 per cent didn’t constitute a penalty.
“Views may differ on whether it can properly be described as “heinous” or “extravagant and unconscionable,” he said.
“However, without needing to deploy any particular adjective to describe it, I am satisfied that the increase in the interest rate on default brought about by the operation of cl 4.3 of the Loan is sufficiently disproportionate to the loss that might ordinarily be expected to be suffered by a lender in the event of a default by a borrower of their obligations under a loan agreement for the evidentiary burden of explaining the basis for that increase to have shifted to Blackbird.”
His honour did however conclude that the compounding of the general interest as opposed to the default rate was reasonable in the circumstances and directed the parties to draft orders giving effect to his judgment.
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