Proprty lawyer – Sydney – urgent

Hi, why dont I put my situation here, I’d appreciate any comments:

To cut the long story short, the vendor originally extended the settlement date on the unit my wife and I are purchasing (off the plan) from June 05 to Sep 05 (86 “rain days”), then 1 week before the settlement date, moved it another month to late October.

The claims were “rain days” (86 days in the first instance – of which they claimed all, 79 rain days in the 2nd instance, although they did not claim all the rain days in the 2nd extension).

Our conveyancer is not a legal expert, and is suggesting we rescind and “See what happens” – I’m not keen on this, although we are desperate to rescind, but would like to talk to someone who can offer some guidance. My query lies around the rain days theory.

They are claiming 79 rain days have occurred since the last extension (20th Jan 05), although they have not claimed all of them. They have “rain tables” showing dates when it rained in the period – but these are for seemingly small amounts of 0.1-0.2 mm per day. The vendor solicitor originally stated the extension was due to a delay at the dept. of lands in registering the strata, but a call to the dept. of lands revealed it was due to an error in the submitted documentation and land boundaries had to be redefined. The vendor then stated it was due to rain delays.

The contract states they can extend the registration date by any delay caused by “inclement” weather (which from many dictionaries states severe weather).

First, I’d like to understand what impact 0.1mm (or the other rain amounts on the days) of rain has on development of the site, both for external and internal work (I would imagine most of the work for the last 6 months has been internal anyway).

I also would like to understand how, if they are stating 79 days of rain, they are claiming the full day as a delay – so for this to happen, it must be raining PRIOR to the start of the days work, and NO WORK AT ALL must have been performed on that day. I find it hard to believe that 0.1mm of rain would stop development for an entire day.

If it rained at e.g. 3pm..then only 2.5 hours delay would occur for that day…its important I understand WHEN it started raining (What time), how much rain fell, what % of the developers work was internal and external etc..it just doesn’t wash with me.

I noticed on a law firms newsletter (internet), the statement:

Where the vendor sets an ambitious, tight timeframe for registration of the plan, the vendor has an obligation to proceed with urgency and must persist in his endeavours even where circumstances turn against him (eg. inclement weather, industrial disputes, etc).

I was hoping to run our situation past a solicitor to give us advice, and to let us know if we have a good case for rescission. They are taking the mickey now, and we are seriously thinking of putting in a rescission. What I dont want to happen is if we put in a rescission, the vendor sues us there and then – can they do that, or do we have to discuss why etc, giving us a chance to withdraw the rescission if they present solid evidence?

Well, must have scared them, registration went through today, on original schedule..stuck with it now! Thanks for the help anyway.