Forum Replies Created
- 93561 wrote:wish both of us luck.
Given that you don't know what state you are in, I think that you are going to need all the luck you can get.
K
Hi Tangata
That's the problem with owning a property in a small town. The PM may be right, there may only be one person who is readily available and qualified to do the work. The alternative is that the PM may just be taking the easy way out by getting the same person to do all the work. However, if this is the only PM in town, then you don't really have a choice but to stay with them. Even if there is another PM, you run the risk that they will do an even worse job and you are then stuck with them.
You could ask him to try to get further quotes but then you do run the risk that you will get him offside. I would just accept that that is the way it is.
There are at least 100 reasons I don't invest in small towns. This is just one of those problems.
What state are you in?
What state are you in? In some states it is written into the contract that the purchaser can charge default interest if the vendor is late settling. In other states the purchaser has no right.
In your solicitor's defence, a lawyer cannot possibly be expected to foresee every single little possibility and have an arrangement for everything out of the ordinary that can occur. There are literally thousands of things that can veer off the course of normal in a conveyance. For a start, your legal fees would be astronomical because the lawyer would take days to write clauses for every possiblity. Secondly, no vendor in their right mind would sign a contract with thousands of special conditions to cover everything that might go wrong.
There is not really anything you can do (except if the contract stipulates that you can get default interest). Yes it is frustrating but that's the vicissitudes of buying and selling property.
I am selling a property that was due to settle on Tuesday. The purchaser's bank wasn't ready and so settlement is now next Monday. I didn't bother charging default interest because banks are slow at the moment. However, today I found out that in the last few days fixed interest rates have dropped and my break costs have gone up by $4000. Am I happy about it? No. But that is just the world of property investing.
Cheers
K
All the strata fees, water levy, council etc will be adjusted in the settlement statement. This means that on the date of settlement you will pay those fees up to the date of settlement. The vendor won't be chasing you at the end of the year for payment.
It is a bit harsh that your solicitor didn't explain this to you. However, it is likely that if you didn't agree to pay the strata etc, then the vendor wouldn't have allowed you a licence to occupy. So you could try to sue your solicitor for the $500 or so that you have had to pay in those fees but I can tell you that you will have buckleys chance of success. You would have to prove that had you known that you would be paying those fees you wouldn't have agreed to the licence to occupy.
As to the extra two weeks rental, I suggest that you contact the vendor's solicitor and ask that you reach some sort of agreement because the delay is the vendor's fault. The vendor doesn't have to agree, but you can always ask.
Cheers
K
I think with termites it is something that is worth spending a few hundred dollars and getting a pest inspector out. Arguably, buying a property with a termite problem could cost you tens of thousands of dollars. I just don't think it worth the risk trying to work out yourself what, if any damage has been done.
While the pest inspector is there, get a quote on repairing the damage (in a separate document). You may be able to use the inspection to push the price lower. Don't tell the vendor how much it will cost to have the property repaired; just tell them that there is damage and try to get the price much lower than it will cost to repair the damage. For example, if it will cost $10,000 to fix, don't tell the vendor this. Instead, just tell him that there is terrible termite damage and it will cost you a fortune to fix. Show him the report and offer $30,000 less.
Well, that's what I would do anyway.
Cheers
K
smy_lee wrote:I am sorry to be a pain can anyone help me structure one?I think you are going to have to just bite the bullet and get a lawyer. If you try to draft one yourself you will probably get it wrong and it will be an invalid default notice which will have the same effect as not issuing a default notice at all. There are so many things to get wrong. Lawyers are not there just to take your money: they are there because they know the law! It doesn't sound like your attempts at conveyancing have been too successful so far so it really would make sense to stop trying to do it yourself and to pay someone who knows what they are doing.
If you can't afford a lawyer/conveyancer for a maximum of $1000 I would have to query whether you can afford to buy a house.
Cheers
K
I agree. Go and see a lawyer.
Go and see a solicitor. You may be able to make a claim on the builder's insurance.
Cheers
K
Or offer better terms? Can you go unconditional? Do you need to get finance approval? Can you find someone who has also bought a unit in the complex recently that you can get building, pest etc inspections from and therefore not have your contract subject to various inspections?
Terms are often just as important as the price.
Cheers
K
You could always put the offer to the vendor. You never know what the vendor may accept.
You could perhaps do a 6 month settlement and take over the lease in two of the units while you renovate them. That way the vendor will still get ongoing rent. Then you could take over the lease in the remaining units and do the same thing to them.
I doubt that any vendor would agree to such terms but, as I just said, you never know if you never ask
Cheers
K
Definitely something you need to get solid legal advice on.
I am a lawyer myself and I would never draw up my own contract. Or set up my own trusts and companies for that matter. Or do my own conveyancing.
That's what lawyers are for. I am continually astonished at the amount of people who try to do their own legal documents and just about always come a cropper.
Go see a lawyer.
Cheers
K
Read the two posts on renovating beneath yours. They both have red envelopes next to them. They should give you all the answers you are looking for.
Cheers
K
Have a look at the standard form of contract. Does it say that the purchaser can charge interest if the vendor is late? In some states the purchaser can claim default interest and in some they can't.
I'm just going to get on my soapbox for a minute here though. Do you know the reason for the delay? Is it the vendor's fault or the bank's fault? Are you suffering any financial detriment due to the late settlement (ie, have you moved out of your house and how have to stay in a hotel) or anything like that? How long was the original settlement? Was it the standard 30 days or has it been longer? The reason I ask is because ALL banks are behind at the moment. and I would imagine it would be almost impossible for banks to meet the 30 day settlement. Is it really necessary to charge default interest? Or could you cut the vendors a bit of slack and accept that with the banks the way they are at the moment it is just "one of those things".
I am waiting on settlement on one of my properties (a block of units) at the moment and the purchaser is late. It is costing me money because I didn't renew leases after we went to contract so that the purchaser could put their own tenants in. So I now have two empty units sitting there. BUT, I realise that the banks are slow and that the delay is no fault of the purchaser and I don't really see any point in penalising the purchaser for something that is out of their hands.
I am a big believer in karma. On several occasions my banks have been late and I have only ever once been charged default interest. I just pay it forward.
Cheers
K
Here is my understanding of the way it works.
SD concessions for first home buyers and the FHOG are not interlinked. With the FHOG you must move in within a certain period of time (you may well be right you when you say that you must live there for a minumum of 6 months within the first 12 months). However you do not have to move in immediately after settlement. If you have purchased a property with a tenant then in most states you can't kick that tenant out on settlement. You must allow the lease to run out. So the FHOG takes this into account. This means that you can receive a rental income on a FHOG property prior to you moving in.
However, the SD concession works differently. To be eligible for the SD concession you must be a first home buyer moving into your PPOR. The ATO does not have a clear definition of requirements for a PPOR. It says that when purchasing a property it must be your INTENTION for it to be your PPOR. There is no timeframe. However, as a general guideline, the ATO accepts that if you live in the property for 12 months then it was your intention that it be your PPOR. There are circumstances when you don't have to live in the property for 12 months. For example, if you are in the ADF and you get a short notice posting to another state then the ATO may give you a bit of latitude. But if, at the time you bought the property you knew that you were going to get posted interstate in 3 months time, then the ATO would probably say that it was not your intention for it to be your PPOR. Another example is if you get sick or lose your job or have a family tragedy that necessitates you selling the property.
So in terms of the FHOG, what you have proposed is probably OK. Your friend is moving into her property immediately and she is getting a flatmate. You are not required to move into your property for the first 6 months so you I can't see why you can't get a six month lease on it. You and your friend then move into your property and meet your FHOG requirements. That all seems fine.
However in terms of the SD concession, while you would be OK (you move in when the lease on the property has expired) and you intend it to be your PPOR, I think your friend would have trouble establishing that she was intending her property to be her PPOR. She has no real reason for moving out after only 6 months and the fact that she is moving into another unit in the same complex would not be viewed kindly by the ATO.
That's just my understanding. I am happy to be corrected of the policies have changed since looked at them a couple of years back.
CHeers
K
Hey Daniel
If partners are not living together prior to applying for the FHOG then both partners would each be entitled to it. Your partner's ex boss was correct in that he said that each partner had to effectively be living separate lives.
The difference with anon is that she is already living with her partner, as you were with yours.
Congratus on your house purchase and good luck with several more!
Cheers
K
Hi Michael
I'm hearing you!!! I won't do anything for less than a 25% return in this market. One of my vendors is simply being irrational. They have been led to believe by one REA that their property is worth about 30% more than it is worth. At the price they want, a developer will lose $50,000 in the deal after costs! I can't negotiate with an irrational party so I have just walked away.
The other vendors have a lot of debt on the property and are saying that they need a particular price to clear their debts. Problem is, no-one is going to pay that price.
There's plenty more out there. I'm cashed up and ready to buy when the price is right.
Cheers
K
Keiko
To do this, anon would have to be able to prove that they were split up at the time. Her boyfriend would have to change his mailing address. If some bills are paid in his name, he would have to cancel that account and set up an account at his new address. Credit card details would have to be changed. If the lease is in both their names then that would need to be changed. And ultimately, if anon were investigated, her friends and family would be need to be able to sign a stat dec to the effect that they honestly believed that at the time anon signed the FHOG application, she was not in a relationship with her partner.
It seems like a lot of hard work and potentially fraught with danger.
Cheers
K
Hi Paullie
My theory is that even though prices have at best stabilised, the vendors appear to be the last ones to realise this. In this past week, I have made two offers on properties, both at market value (one after an independent valuation) and both vendors have rejected the offers, wanting a completely unrealistic price. Both properties are development sites and at the prices the vendors are asking there is about a 5% profit in the deal. I could get at least a 20% return before the market became a buyers' market!
Cheers
K
My point was, when all you have to do is declare something on a document (your relationship status, your income level etc) you can really write down whatever you want. However, if you write something that isn't true then it is fraudulent.
Sorry Daniellee, I have to disagree with you. If anon writes on the FHOG form that she is not in a defacto relationship then she is committing fraud. The financial independence is only one small aspect of the test. The general test is "what would outsiders think of the relationship?" If anon writes on the form that she is not in a relationship and she gets investigated then she will no doubt be forced to repay the money and will possibly face criminal charges.
Anon, there is a lot of reading between the lines on this thread. My advice would be to get legal advice on this issue. Failing that, be aware of the consequences of giving false information when applying for the FHOG. People have, and will continue to be, prosecuted for doing this.
Cheers
K
