Lessons Learned this Settlement

Just sharing.

Today we settled on IP#4.
This has been by far the most stressful, painful & fearful settlement we have ever gone through.
Long story short.

Committed to off the plan townhouse Q3 2009 –> Building Completion VERY late –> Financed new property with RAMS, whilst Refinancing 2 existing IPs away from St George Bank –> Discovered St George did not register the Title of 1 of the previous IPs –> Explanations and Finally getting paperwork completed on Title = Missed Settlement Date –> Request Extension –> Vendor issues Rescission Notice instead –> St George only processes partial discharge not Full Discharge –> Getting close to Rescission date, whilst sweating on paperwork for full discharge. –> Finally Settling 3 working days before rescission deadline. END.

Lessons learned through this harrowing experience

1) Never assume that just because settlement is completed. That you are paying your mortgage. That the title of the property is in your name.
> Ring the Land Titles Office.
> Provide the Folio and Volume Number to your Title. Check that the Financier actually registered the title in your name post settlement.
> This is a free service. We would never have discovered that the title was not in our name unless we refinanced. It could have gone for years had we not refinanced.

2) If you buy a new property + intend on doing any refinancing whatsoever with that new purchase. DO NOT underestimate the time it takes to get refinancing paperwork generated and sent to the right locations for settlement. We stupidly allowed a 2 wk settlement from building completion in the Sales Contract (dumb thing to do). From now on we are changing sales contracts to a 4 – 6 Week settlement timeframe from building completion in the same scenario. 2 weeks is barely enough to get refinancing paperwork generated and sent.