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You've lost me a little… If you lease the house to the company, you can claim the deductions as it is a rental property. If the company then pays you a LWAFH allowance then it is up to you how you spend this money & where you live, as long as you are not leasing the property back from the company this is fine.
Is there any chance of living in one of the other company rented properties & swapping with the other owners?
Move them into a serviced apartment for a week whilst the internal works are done – but you will need to have all your ducks lined up to do the work ASAP. A few $ spent on keeping the tenant happy (consider it a holiday), is money well spent getting them out of your hair for the week while all the work happens.
The risk is no different to when you change insurers as you have found a more competitive price – it shouldn't cost any more, so shop around.
Scott No Mates wrote:Google trusts – you should find a diy for under $500 (once you know what you require)Found the link: http://www.patricia.com.au/page/unit_trusts/
It all comes down to the brief given to the soil tester, the number of samples, where they have been taken from on the site etc. If the site previously had a building which had been razed and the rubble buried on site the results will vary widely. Soil testing must be undertaken in the area where the works are to be done, to a sufficient depth to give a soil profile which can then be interpreted by the engineer. The engineer should brief the soil tech appropriately and have some idea of the pre-existing soil conditions.
I have seen a few sites where the testing was inconclusive (and included in the tender documentation), it just led the PM to variation heaven – new pier/footing design, rubble removal, floaters etc.
90% of construction problems begin in the ground by having incomplete/non-reliable information about the ground conditions. Everything else above the ground can be controlled.
Thanks
A couple of small points
– most people who aren't in special care have an iq of >75 (and still they can't do much)
– an apprenticeship lasts 4 years generally and covers a lot more issues than the weekend army will ever see.
– $80 incl call out fee, a bargain. Who can diagnose a problem without seeing the site conditions?
– trades (like plumbers, gas fitters, electricians & air-conditioning installers) are licensed due to the risks these items pose to your health and safety
– I actually like getting paid a fair price to do the jobs that I have been trained for & to use the skills that I have acquired. If you got a 3am cold wet sunday morning call out, would you do it for $25 per hour including supplying all of your tools?If the locals aren't doing it for you, terminate their contract (in writing, including removal from the net etc).
Market it yourself after getting the minor works done – note it as a 'fire sale/pre-mortgagee sale/divorce settlement etc' but leave sufficient room to move on price. Advert in local paper, SMH/Age/BCM country properties & on the web with a couple of good photos once all the work is done. Have the work done by a couple of subbies from out of the area whilst the agency period finishes.
Richard, is that to say by redrawing from your offset account rather than redrawing the loan, you can utilise these funds for other purposes and still get the deductibility of higher interest charges as the value of the loan had only been temporarily reduced by the 'spare' funds in the offset account?
Hopefully your solicitor actually checked the strata records to see if there were any problems with Body Corporate & that the Strata Plan was being correctly administered, including its finances.
The executive of the BC should be able to rebalance the admin/sinking fund contributions at the AGM or at another meeting to better meet the operating costs of the building.
The Federal Treasurer was queried over this issue this morning on ABC Radio – said a great deal about nothing. When pushed about controlling the banks or the abilty to stop the banks from making excessive profits he continued to push that borrowers should vote with their feet if they don't like what the banks are doing.
Geoff, although you are paying for this 'service', like all other services provided by the bank (at your cost), you do not own this information – eg you pay the banks legal fees but are not entitled to their lawyers opinion.
The type of valuation provided to the banks is generally the 'short form' valuation, which is not a valuation which would resemble one which you would request if you were instructing the valuer ie you would be generaly requiring a) market value, b) insurance/replacement purposes, c) transfer or d) securitisation. There was much discussion at the Aust Property Institute with regard to the compliance of these short form valuations with the principles of valuation for general property and the rules of the institute. In the end, there is an approved short form valuation which is API compliant.
Faith,
What field -commercial, industrial, residential (single house, multi unit), multi storey)?
What Specialty? New/Refurbishment
What area?
What type of work? (repairs, maintenance, single trade works)Sorry about all the questions but you'll need to be able to answer these to find the right sort of builder?
Contact the Master Builders Association http://www.mbansw.asn.au/ or (02) 8586-3555
Google trusts – you should find a diy for under $500 (once you know what you require)
Thanks Richard, I transferred as per #2 at minimal cost. Geez, they keep cutting out the lurks.
These are at two totally different ends of the spectrum Jason.
The first option – buy a developed investment (house/unit) and have the benefits of rent, neg gearing losses etc & payment of outgoings, interest & the like. It is easy to get into this market, returns are reasonably secure (ie you can reqsonably accurately quantify your yield, expenses, depreciation, etc).
The second option – exposes you to development risk. Risk includes long approval times with council – higher interest repayments, construction cost & timeframe, sales period. Your greatest risk is buying at the right price however much of the good work can be undone by a restrictive or slow council adding to your holding costs. You must fully understand how long it will take from purchase to settlement of your sale (post development) and how time will affect your profits.
Will the following work? Buy it in your name, wife as guarantor. You get all income/deductions/pay all costs. In 3 years, move into the property transferring 50% ownership to your wife (at nil price). Upon eventual sale, no cgt on her proportion but you will pay 3/x * MRT * 50% (discount) for the period which you didn't reside in the property.
Would your wife qualify for fhbg if she bought a PPR?
With regards to the pool use – contact the secretary of the BC and request a copy of the rules of the use of the pool. You are paying for the pool, unless it is out of commission (signposted/locked off) you should be able to use it. Use it anyway, if someone asks, plead ignorant.
As far as having to pay to additional fees to make up for other unit owners defaults – this is not on. Each unit owner has a liability and is charged as part of their strata levies. Any short payment comes out of the Admin fund and interest is charged on the outstanding amounts.
You will need to make sure of the adequacy of both the sinking fund & admin fund. If you can, join the BC at its next meeting and volunteer to be on the committee at the next AGM.
Try your luck in the North Shore TImes – I know that I have actually found a few gems in there over the years, including a bricky whos advert appeared in the wrong section. (Possibly the roofing professionals at Artarmon – or contact Plumbers Supply Co-op or Reece at Artarmon they might help you out).
Reneeshen, the reason why we point out that you are going in the wrong direction is highlighted by the example below. Before you read it, how are you going to pay for (take advantage of) any negative gearing ie additional capital if you are only on benefits?
Wrapper – buys @ $80k, 8% interest, $1400 insurance/rates/o.g, rent = $80 pw ($4k) – this gives them a loss of $3k
You buy off the wrapper, $100k, 10% interest, $1400 ins/rates/og, rent = $4k. This creates a loss of $11.4k as you are responsible for all og. The wrapper gets $20k extra for the property, $2k for the additional interest as well as not paying outgoings.
Hopefully this might dissuade you.
