Forum Replies Created
My personal experience has been to buy a property at auction which was badly vandalised 4 days later. I am now involved in ongoing legal proceedings, argueing about the cost of the repairs, trying to rescind the contract. I never sought legal advice before signing athiscontract but from now on will, as when I got the phone call from the cops to tell me I had no idea what my legal rights were until I asked a solicitor, and even then I had to look around to find a knowledgeable one with good conveyancing contract knowledge. From now on I will always ask a solicitor the ins and outs of a contract before I sign. I guess you can and stand by your own decisions, however when the unplanned does happen your own knowledge/decisions power is not enough.
Hi Tim,
Your local library should have quite a few of these books available, mine does. Saves buying them!Hello there, I have recently experinced a similar scenario with one of my units. I attended the meeting where everyone seemed fairly intimidated by the managing agent running the body corporate, however as soon as I started listing complaints other owners joined in and it was revealed how frustrated everyone was. We put our managing agent on notice, shape up or next year a new manager appointed. Also I requested for the books to be independently audited (you wonder where all the money goes). To compare fees with other blocks is difficult, as it depends on the amount of money your sinking fund has or lacks and what work your building needs doing. However you can certainly start contacting other body corporate managing agents and get quotes, to present to the other owners and also to help get the current one doing some work. Fair trading has a helpful publication online about strata issues. You can also ring Fair Trading with your questions.
Hi all,
Thanks for all your input! I started doing a bit of reserach and talked to another property manager who manages several units in the same building, and it turns out mine is renting out for $30 per week less than what some of the other units are (in same condition inside). He told me he has a waiting list for tenants for one bedders in Mosman! I have decided to hold onto the property now as with rental increase it is affordable. I can afford negative gearing (job is secure) but I was just sick of the whole thing because of having nil growth (and negative growth), as is the case for a lot of Sydey property over the last 4 years or so. My loan is fixed for the next 10 months, by the time it becomes variable again the rents will have gone up again and should cover the increased costs. It has been hard going in Sydney for the last 5 years for landlords with a surplus of invetsment properties but now the situation is changing and at long last the rents are starting to go up to reflect the real value of property., as more and more investment properties get sold off. As for capital value, it is only now finally worth what I paid for it in 2002! The value dropped from 2003 onwards and was another reason to hold on, I did not want to make a capital loss as well. I am fortunate having bought in a good area, I know a lot of people whose properties still aren't worth what they bought them for in 2002/2003, and they are doing it hard especially due to the rates going up and up but being locked into making a loss if they sell and walk away.
Also please note rate rises do not result in rent increases!!!!Only if there is a market demand can you put up your rent to reflect the rate rise. If there is a glut of investment property around you might well find yourself lowering your rent and increasing your repayments. This has been pretty much my scenario, my unit has been renting well below what it was renting for in 2002 and is only now catching up again. But in that same time we have had 10(? I think) rate rises.I would avoid this, do your own deals.
Hi,
With the Central Coast just check the local area throughly, the council has run rampant on development and not planned very well (I am thinking of Gosford itself here mainly). Also I heard some of the newer developments are so badly build that they already need new front doors, 5 months after being built, due to the building being out of line (no names I don't want to be sued). I know of this as I have relatives in Gosford. Also it is a low socio-economic area, a lot of Centre Link clients. You would do well to run addresses past the local cops and ask their opinion about the street. I don't want to put you off by any means, I also have housing in low socio-economic areas, it is just something to be aware of.You need to spray paint it because that is the only way those vermiculite things don't break off. Another option you may like to consider is to install a fake dropped ceiling, then you can do downlights at the same time. Sometimes it works out cheaper, and it certainly looks better. You have to wonder what those people in the 70s were thinking don't you. Another option is to paint the walls in a colour that tones down the vermiculite, a friend of mine recently did this painting her walls a soft moss green and it really camouflages the grey vermiculite, now you hardly notice it at all, whereas before when the walls were stark white it really stood out. Good luck.
In my experience I have found children damage a property, pets don't. I have had tenants keep pets, have never had a problem with them at all as I generally find that good tenants will take good care of their pets and be grateful that they are allowed to keep them. It is children now that I dread, drawing on walls with crayons, kicking walls….children are also more annoying for the neighbours if they misbehave (especially in unit blocks). I would take a small pet anyday. Maybe organise to do an inspection yourself, and if the place looks fine don't stress. For all you know the tenant may have just had a relative's pet over for the day while they were in hospital, and if they are paying the rent and keeping the place neat, it's not worth losing a good tenant over.
I don't know about Moree, however I do know about these towns and about places getting thrashed.
Some points to think about if you go ahead with purchase:
1) Can you get the empty units boarded up until you get a tenant, so risk of vandalsim lower?
2) Get top of the range property/landlord insurance, so if place gets thrashed you are covered. Get insurance from the day you buy, not the day you settle, so you are covered in case there is a dispute between vendor and yourself about the amount of damage.
3) Use an excellent solicitor who can defend you and lodge claims should you have to.
4) Buy with finance clause, that way another way out for you if place gets trashed before you settle.
Good luck!Well I am only starting out in this demographic, so hard to advise you. My first property is in a very nice part of town in a very classy suburb (bought as own home but moved out) The irony of it is that this place was damaged by bad tenants (during a domestic fight) and the agent gave them the bond back and did not tell me about the damage. It is now all sorted, but it did start me thinking that problems can happen anywhere, so why not go for the higher yields if you are going to be traipsing around Bunnings, make it worth your while…. But must admit this episode is testing my nerves!
Thanks guys,
have to laugh at the electric fence (if only we could!). i think wood may be the way to go, i will get a quote done on that, it only has to be basic, not planning to hold it for very long. Someone suggested hedging to me, has anyone here tried that? I guess they could set it on fire, and rip it out if only small.Actually my on big tip for buying off the Department of Housing would be use a top notch solicitor, that way when it goes belly up you at least have someone on side.
Hi guys,
Broken Hill has been mentioned to me several times (well more than several times) in my pursuit for a solicitor who can deal with this. Sounds like a lot of trouble there, lots of stories about places thrashed prior settlement. At the moment purusing the one (and only) quote, supplied by the estate agant on behalf of the Housing Dept to do the repairs. A glazier (yes! A glazier) has quoted $2800 to replace 5 internal walls and paint the patches on them. So much for getting a good builder, full paint and clean job! You have to laugh.Sorry! Doing this at work so have lots of screens up at once….
Hi World Hunter,
Thanks for your thoughts. Unfortunately when I rang to get builder's quotes (to compare my quotes with agency quotes) 2 just laughed at me and said 'no way, we are way too busy' , a third was prepared to do a quote but said he was booked out until next year with jobs, so was happy to quote as long as he did not have to do the job anytime soon. As such even though getting a 'bargain', no point having an untenanted 'bargain', especially with the christmas/school holidays drawing near. Then I heard a horror story from a solicotor about the quality of these Housing Dept repair tradesman, one house had cardboard put in the walls (instead of gyprock) and was painted over, when tenants moved in they fell through the wall and injured themselves. Could you imagine! Then another thing that is really suspicious is that the damage was reported as being well over $5000, yet the quote comes in at $2800. And how interesting to note that the quote was obtained by the agent, the same agent that will loose their sales commission iffI get out of the contract. Another solicitor I just hired noted how a damage bill of more than 5% of the purchase price will let you out of the contract, so no wonder they quote ridiculously low! No doubt based on cardboard walls. Sorry, getting really cynical here.Dear Anny,
This happened to me some years ago that may shed light on your situation. We bought a house with a separate garage. The purchase went smoothly. We enjoyed the garage and used it all the time. About 5 years after buying the house we decided to refinance. During the refinance process we were alerted by the new bank's solicitor to the the fact that the garage was an unapproved structure; and they were not willing to proceed with the refinance unless we either tore it down or got it approved. We tried to get council approval but it was denied. We were not going to tear it down, as it was a great garage. The bank declined to refinance us, but we ended up paying a loan application anyway (thank you Aussie home loans!). It was a very old house and it was obvious the garage had been there for at least 20 years, and the house had been sold many times….I guess even though the unapproved structures are a great addition, the problem is going to be the finance angle. And who needs that?Hi Simon,
I did insure the day I bought, but insured it from settlement day onwards as according to my conveyancer the dept of Housing was responsible until it settled for the condition of the property. I guess in my ignorance I just assumed that if damage were done than I would have the option to get out of the contract. At the time of viewing the property I asked the agent about this; she told me that in the past when they have sold these and if they were vandalised prior to settlement than the purchasers were always let off as the Dept of Housing 'did not want to get a repuattion for being difficult vendor'.
Also Jensta interesing that you mention the boards, I actually requested boards to be put on asap to prevent this happening, as this appeared to be the only vacant house with no boards, again was told it is up to the vendor a(housing Dept) and they will get around to it. I guess one of the hassles of buying out of town, you can't just do a quick drive by and check that it has been done.
This would definitely be something I would recommend to future buyers
1) get boards as conditon of signing contract,
2) make insurance valid from day one, even if your conveyancer says you don't have to.Is this the council rates notice, or the land tax notice from the Office of State revenue? They can vary greatly, depending on how much revenue they want to collect per financial year. The land tax may be way overvalued, whereas the council land value may be under value. You really need to do some more research to establish the true value of how much the land has been selling for. I would not rely on any rates notice to give a true value indication.
Dear Jensta,
How did your ex housing commissions work out?There is no subject to finance clause, the housing dept uses their standard contract which I considered and even though I did not like it (especially the 28 day settlement) I decided to risk it. However there is a clause in it that says that prior to settlement the purchaser can inspect the property and it needs to be in the original condition (ie like at auction day). I just spoke to a few other solicitors, who all say that as the property now will no longer be as it was I should be able to get out of the contract. I suspect maybe my conveyancer is not able to deal with the complexity of the situation and will employ another solicitor if it is not sorted out on monday. I rang the estate agency manager and spoke with him, he indicated to me that the Housing Dept has the 3 options available and that they will offer me a choice between at least two of them and that it needs to be negotiated to everyone's agreement. So perhaps my conveyancer has not interpreted the contract correctly. Indications are either the Housing Dept repair the inside of the house completely as it is impossible to discern between original damage and last week's vandalism (and price of property stays as at the auction); or they deduct the cost of the repairs of the purchase price with a sweetener thrown in for the delay and hassle; or they let me out of the contract. As far as I know they don't have many builders so I suspect that if I don't take the sweetener deal (no thanks, the builders are booked out to the end of the year, I don't need a property standing empty) hopefully that will be the end of it. It has however been very badly handled and my property investor friends have watched on saying 'hmmmm don't think I will buy one of those'!
