Greetings,
I got a question.
I sold a property, settled a month ago. At that time i owe some body corp fee, which I thought if the buyer diligently wanted me to pay the part i owed, they would outline that on the statement of adjustment prior to the settlement day. But they didnt, and so we settled.
Today the solicitor comes back to me asking for that body corp fee that i owed. One theory I did owe the body corp some money, on the other hand on the sale of contract the documents were complete and out loud the owner corp cert saying how much i owe. Do i need to pay the buyer that body corp fee or its not my responsibility anymore because the property has exchanged hands and the body corp fee owing was part of the property sold?
Cheers,
blaze
If it was outstanding, perhaps the purchaser thought you had already paid it, which is why it didn't appear on the settlement statement. Perhaps, I'm not sure.
I think you should do the right thing and pay it.
I think that Body Corporate payments attach to the property, not the property owner and therefore you probably don't have any legal obligation to pay it. However, if I was in your position, I would just pay the money. That would seem to be the decent thing to do.
Cheers
K
i think your conveyancer has to be held accountable.after all isnt this why we pay them.they should have pofessional liability insurance.as you say if it was spelt out in black and white in the section 32 it should have been picked up.if you do pay i would ask for a partial refund on the conveyancing fee.sounds fair to me
The portion of the BC fees which were unpaid at the time of settlement are your responsibility as you were the legal owner of the property and 'enjoyed' the services provided by the BC. If there was any adjustment of the levies made by your solicitor it would have been noted eg 32 days of 90 days with the balance being paid by the purchaser.
The solicitor couldn't be held for not picking up on this however as you have received payment covering these charges you are still liable for them.
is that a legalpoint or a personal opinion.again why isnt the conveyancer putting up their hand and saying oops
The fees are not owed by the conveyancer but by the vendor. You have been reimbursed by the purchaser the unexpired period of the levies, you did not disclose to the conveyancer that you had not paid the levies. The onus is on the vendor to disclose these things, not upon the purchaser to discover them. There is a principle of unjust enrichment which applies
from the first post I thought that you should just pay it mate. No need to make the buyers life any harder
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