Former child actor Bobby Clark, one owner of a sprawling and now insolvent real estate investment enterprise that owns 405 rental properties in Northern Ontario, is shown in a video on X enjoying a lavish lifestyle of huge houses, yachts and private jets.Supplied
The owner of the boutique Hotel Julie, star of a 2023 Crave television series based in Stratford, Ont., is one of a dozen borrowers facing demands for millions of dollars in unpaid debts amid one of the largest private lending collapses in Canadian history.
Jacob Norris Tayler (also known as Jake Tayler or Taylor) and Paula Rae McFarlane had their hotel star as the subject of the 2023 show Staying Inn: Hotel Julie, but in recent weeks the couple has been ordered by Ontario courts to pay back more than $452,000 owed to five different lenders who accepted promissory notes from their real estate investment businesses based in London, Ont. The orders came in the form of default judgments, meaning Mr. Tayler and Ms. McFarlane did not contest the claims.
The couple is just one of about a dozen borrowers who are also identified in court documents related to the receivership of The Lion’s Share Group Inc., a promissory note lending business run by former mortgage broker Claire Drage. Ms. Drage was the primary broker of close to $130-million in private mortgage and promissory note loans for the insolvent real estate company controlled by former child actor Robby Clark, who bought more than 400 houses in Ontario.
Many real estate investors have turned to promissory notes as a form of short-term loan. But they exist in a grey area of lax oversight and permissive regulations. That makes it difficult for individuals to get their money back if a buyer defaults; unlike a mortgage, a promissory note isn’t registered against a property, so the lender can’t attach a lien to a house and recoup their loan as a proceed of its sale. Harold Geller, a lawyer who focuses on investment losses, has said promissory notes are “a guarantee of nothing, of air. "
Mr. Clark was Ms. Drage’s largest and most indebted borrower, but Ms. Drage’s Lion’s Share business also brokered hundreds of deals for about a dozen smaller real estate investors who have been sideswiped by the collapse of her lending business and are facing demands from investors to repay loans or pay interest that in some cases has been overdue for months.
In July and August, a series of court judgments ordered the repayment of more than $2.5-million in debt from Ms. Drage’s borrowers, offering a window into the amount of debt these small lenders were extending in recent years.
On July 3, Ontario resident Eleanor Wallace won a default judgment in Hamilton for more than $596,000 against an array of Lion’s Share borrowers including: McFarlane/Tayler (who owe her $106,327); Windsor-based businessman Kyle McDonald (who owes her $162,000); real estate investor Nels Moxness (who owes her $51,581); Mike Killingsworth and Krista Killingsworth who flip Ottawa-area houses under the name “The K Crew” (who owe her $53,447); real estate flipper Darcy Roberts (who owes her $170,554); and James Dunn and Rozanne Godin of Roti Holdings Inc. (who owe her $51,605).
In addition, on July 3, LMMD Inc. (a property management firm owned Windsor’s Leroy Manning) won more than $440,000 from many of the same lenders; on July 25, Oscar Salinas of Salinas Ventures won $688,144 from them and on Aug. 1 realtor and investor Serena Holmes won $265,250.
At least a dozen other claims are pending for millions more in several Ontario court jurisdictions.
None of the claims have been proven in court.