Hi again Petria.
For any professional to properly and with fiduciary duty of care to their client, one would need a basic Assets & Liabilities in combination with what your goals and concerns are. Ypu need to appraise the tax implications in line with your existing loan structures, your ages, self employed or PAYG, and so on……

PS: Think about it – significant termite damage seen superficially in the frame of house that is only 12 years old?

Hi Petria.
Too little information. You would really need to speak with someone who you can share much more information than you would probably need to expose in this forum to be able to help you proceed with solid wealth solutions for your current situation and future goals. If you can't seem to get that help, please feel free to drop me an email below.
Kind regards,

PS James.
Any hassles, feel free to drop me an email below.
And thanks. It's always great to know just a small amount of perspoective has put you more at ease.
All the best with the lawyer

Hi Jamie.

Gee, fast on the keys tonight!

Let me make this absolutely clear. From what you have said there is NO way the Vendor has a right to claim a loss against you for alleged breach of contract. The Vendors ONLY claim would be against the Real Estate Agent. The Vendor, through a legal mouthpiece, wanting to claim YOUR deposit as compensation is TOTAL & UTTER GARBAGE!
Please, speak to a Solicitor as, upon further reflection, this is smelling very 'scamming' to me.

The authors of these blogs and websites who advocate the property bubble is about to burst see themselves as guerrilla cells working to detonate Australians' warped obsession with property, which they see as fuelled by low-rent property spruikers and a hopelessly conflicted media empire that makes money out of selling property advertising.

Somewhat undermining their argument, it is the media that periodically causes a spasm of alarm about potential property price falls by reporting the results of international surveys suggesting Australia is home to the most overvalued housing in the world.

The Economist magazine recently published yet another of its surveys estimating Australian houses are ''overvalued'' by 56 per cent – the highest in the world – on a historical ratio of rents to house prices. (The so-called Economist Intelligence Unit manages to routinely overlook the different tax treatment of investment housing in Australia, which encourages landlords to chase capital gains and treat rental returns as secondary.)

Less sophisticated bubblers simply compare the rise in house prices over the past few decades to the rise in wages to make the ''overvalued'' claim, pointing out that the former vastly outperforms the latter.

But this overlooks the historic boost to household borrowing capacity that occurred in the 1990s with the halving of nominal interest rates. This, in effect, doubled the amount households were able to borrow against a certain income. The relaxation of lending standards by banks in response to financial deregulation also increased the amount banks were willing to lend against that income. These two factors are largely responsible for the increase in household debt between the mid-1990s and 2000s.

Sophisticated bubblers acknowledge this, but are convinced that debt levels are unsustainable. Some shock will happen, they say, such as high unemployment that will lead to forced sales and falling prices. The bubble, by definition, must pop.

You see, house prices only fall when people are forced to sell their homes. Otherwise, households choose to simply remain in their home and wait things out. Property investors are loath to realise their capital loss.

A true collapse in house prices would indeed require some large external shock – a doubling of unemployment or interest rates – to trigger the wave of forced home sales that it would take to provoke house price falls.

With low joblessness in Australia and the big surge in national income created by the mining boom, it is hard to see the trigger for such an event.

That does not mean, however, that housing in Australia is not expensive compared to other countries. Economists such as HSBC's Paul Bloxham have pointed out that there may be good reasons for Australian houses being expensive. Compared to the rest of the world, we have high quality housing stock, with a high proportion of solidly constructed houses on big blocks. Most of the population is concentrated in a few capital cities with often marvellous water views. The dire state of public transport in big cities such as Sydney only increases the premium on properties located close to the CBD.

The Reserve Bank has also sought to dispel fears of a bursting property bubble by pointing out that the rise in debt levels has been concentrated in the hands of those who can most afford it. In a Bulletin article last week, RBA staff analysed data from the Melbourne Institute's household, income and labour dynamics in Australia survey to show how by the end of the noughties, 73 per cent of the value of home loans were in the hands of the top 40 per cent of households by income, up from 69 per cent at the turn of the century. The article also found that about half of households are ahead of schedule on their loan repayments, giving them something of a buffer should they lose their income temporarily.

Finally, those predicting big house price falls should also recall the recent experience during the global financial crisis when policy makers, confronted by an external shock capable of puncturing house prices, acted quickly to cushion the economy with interest rate rises and fiscal stimulus.

The Reserve Bank governor was asked recently whether the prospect of house prices falling kept him awake at night. ''I worry about a lot of things at night,'' the governor confided before admitting that falling house prices were not among them.

Because here is the surprising thing: house prices, in Sydney at least, have been falling relative to incomes for some years. The great house price deflation is already happening, just very slowly and in an exceedingly calm manner. That's the slowly deflating hiss of an over pumped air mattress you can hear, not a bubble bursting.

Hi Kate

We could probably be able to give you a hand in Launceston. Feel free to have a look at our website and if you feel comfortable doing so, please feel free to send me an email to my address below. It's also nice to know that you have been reprieved from the clutches of one of those east coast investment property floggers! Also, I do hope your hubby is not too bad off with the ole foot!

Well put JacM

Hi Wanderwoman.
If you can produce at least one other person, even a Real Estate Agent, to confirm the seats had indeed been changed, I would go to the police and make a claim of theft and that you can support this theft with a sworn or affirmed affidavit from yourself and at least one other witness. At the very least, make the report to the police yourself (without a witness) alleging the theft and they may well send the CIB around to the ex-vendors to investigate. Do not return the pots as it would be very difficult and costly for these idiots to actually prove they're theirs. Also, take photos of the pots so if they should mysteriously disappear one night you'll know who to call?