Hi!
Just a quick rundown on my current miss fortune.. Was wondering if anyone has been through the same thing..
The loan contract I signed with my bank roughly 2 months ago in my opinion stated the wrong stamp duty (contract stated stamp duty at around 12k) as there was a mix up between the bank and I’m guessing my solicator, you see I’m building and the land I brought was for 110k and a contract to build ontop of that for 165k. (Combined = 275k) I thought I only had to pay stamp duty on the land which comes to around $2400.. and not the combined total..
I initialy brought this up on the day of signing the loan contract and the person who was representing the bank said she would look into it but then continued on with explaining other parts of the contract and then getting me to sign at the end. I know I shouldn’t have signed untill things were looked into and amended but I had so much on the go, this just lapsed my mind.
Am I now liable for this extra 10k or can it be amended somehow?
Please help!
The best thing to do is to contact your solicitor ASAP. Don’t delay any longer. They will be able to advise you of your obligations and whether or not you can lodge some sort of appeal.
If the stamp duty is incorrect then I don’t think the contract would be legally enforceable….check that though.
But call your solicitor asap!!
Cam [suave]
Hello joelc
I don’t think you need to panic.
Stamp duty is not a charge by the bank …. like valuation fees or loan establishment fees… which you would have to pay since, by signing the contract, you had agreed to do so.
It is a charge by the SRO and the amount is fixed based on their rules. It does not matter what the bank wrote. It matters what the SRO charges. The bank just pays it to them on your behalf. In your loans contract the bank would have filled in an estimate of your stamp duty but if it’s wrong I don’t believe it effects your contract.
It may be that if you first buy a block of land and then contract to build a house on it you only pay SD on the land, but if you buy a land and house package it’s on the full amount. I don’t know. I’m just speculating.
Why don’t you ring up the SRO and ask them what the stamp duty should be in your case.
Have you settled on the land yet? If you did and it was a couple of months ago then check your bank statements to see what, if any SD has been paid on your behalf. It’s not done at settlement. It’s done later and you should be able to see it as a seperate payment..
Even if there has been a mistake made it can be rectified. On my last property the bank overpaid $3K SD on my behalf. As I suggested to them, it turned out that someone had incorrectly reported how much I had paid for the property to the SRO. The bank reimbursed me the $3K plus the interest I had paid on this amount.
They would have gotten the money back from the SRO too.Let us know how you go please.
Cheers [smiling]
ElkaThx peeps, I’ve contacted my solicator and she’s got things undercontrol. There seems to be a mixup between my bank and a stat dec that was signed by the builder.
For some reason I’m guessing my bank has just gone by SD displayed on the Stat dec and not bothered with double checking it, but this can’t be confirmed.I’ll keep you poseted on whatever the exact mixup was…
Just a thought for next time, I’ll do my own SD check and not sign the contract till it’s right!
To cut a long story short I overpaid stamp duty because the vendor signed a stat dec that was prepared for him with the incorrect land value on it. (There was a typo which saw an extra 100k added on)
To correct this matter DO NOT let your bank manager tell you that "We'll handle the matter for you". I think in the last 7 months I've made 30 phonecalls trying to chase the matter up (progress check up phone calls) and unfortunately it was a big waste of time.
I learned this the hard way and so I took on what I thought was only a matter that the bank could resolve, when infact refund process is infact quite easy and can be arranged by yourself in a few days…
Firstly you need to get in contact with your conveyancer/solicitor, preffereably meet with them and sit in their office while they call the vendors conveyancer/solicitor and request them to prepare a new stat dec stating that the old stat dec was infact inorrect and also the actual land value. Have the new stat dec signed by the vendor and posted to your conveyancer/solicitor's office. Also have your conveyancer/solicitor arrange through the RE Agent a land valutaion to verify that the land value is around what the vendor has stated.
Once these are in order, send the new stat dec and a photo copy of the RE Agent's valuation along with the form from the below website to the address on the form.
http://www.sro.vic.gov.au/sro/srowebsite.nsf/revenue/Gen-Form-1/$FILE/Gen-Form-1.pdf
Over the phone the SRO duties payable department will tell you to expect a refund turn around time of about 6 weeks but the turn around time for me once these documents were sent in was around 3 to 4 weeks.
Thank you for passing that information on. Glad you got it settled at last.
Cheers
Elka
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