Hi All,
Does anyone have any experience with settlement property law in WA? I don’t want to seek a solicitor if I have no hope.
We sold our PPOR and of course agreed on a settlement date. Unfortunately property that we were moving into has experienced delays, and we wish to extend settlement by 5 working days. Purchaser has said no way, to our request, and insisted we re look at the original date or penalty interest will be invoked.
If i could i would pull out if the sale because we could sell our house very easily given the market and probably get another $20k!!!
Anyway, has anyone had similar experience, and if so what are the options (if any) in WA?
Thanks Heaps….
JES
Unfortunately a contract is a contract and if it is watertight then the settlement date won’t change without mutual agreement and you can’t just pull out. You are given 3 working days lee-way so that is pretty close. but really is 5 days penalty interest that big a deal?
your settlement agent should be able to sort this our for you without going legal. it is an interesting example though for using a settlement agent that has an in house legal team… settlements can be straight forward but when they start to go messy you need to know the cheap fee doesn’t equate to cheap service.
http://www.megapropertygroup.comINVESTMENT SALES * RENTAL SOLUTIONS * STRATA MANAGEMENT
Thanks AUSPROP, I figured that was the case. 5 days penalty interest may not be so bad, but becasue we are seeking extra 3 working days, as I understand the penalty interest will go right back to the initial settlement date, and that will inclusde 2 weekends which makes it 10 days total.
Ill take it up with settlement agent on Monday, if anything interesting comes of it ill post the outcome.
Bloody anoyed though that these purchasers are being so strict, and more annoyed that our RE Agent (the selling agent who earned the easist $16 odd grand in his life) has not been able to better negotiate an outcome with the purchasers, i have been asking him to prepare the purchasers for weeks now that a delay of a couple of days may be sought, up until now he has said that should not be a problem. Now we have put the request in writing he tells me that they will not budge…needless to say I am probably off his christmas card list given our last converstaion.
[grrr]
JES
Hey Jes,
If you are concerned that the agent earned an easy $16k then you should have negotiated the fee down. All commissions in WA are now negotiable.Was there a reason given why the buyers would not accept the delayed settlement ? Maybe they had a valid reason themselves ( eg…had to move out of a rental by a fixed date, etc) hence your inconvenience would be turning into theirs ?
Anyway, hope the outcome is not too distressing.
kp
kp, Most experts suggest that if you don’t seek the cheapest solution you could expect more professional expertise should things become ragged. Personally I make a point of not going for bargain basement in most business dealings I do. Having said that, we did negotaiate a better rate than std, but the value of our home dicated a lot of earnings for the agent. An agent i used before by the way, (although this is the first time things became stressed). Take your point about the purchaser but like i suggested we had been warning everyone concerned that we may seek some flexibility by a few days, no one raised any alarm over this before now.
A true sales professional would have advised me weeks ago that settlement flexibility in the form of an extension would not be likely..(becasue he would have discussed this clearly with the purchaser)that is my beef, not the lack of allowance by the purchaser.
Oh, well, we’ll work it out……onward and upward.
Thanks for your feedback though..[tired]
JES
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