The Building Legislation Amendment (Consumer Protection) Act 2016(the Act) which was passed by the Victorian Government on 19 April 2016 imposes sweeping reforms in respect to a number of significant areas affecting residential construction in Victoria. By reason of a Proclamation published in the Victoria Government Gazette No. S 194 dated 21 June 2016, certain sections of the Act are to commence and ‘become live’ on 4 July this year. While the purpose of the...
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A couple who spent nearly $1 million on a Hawthorne property are suing the real estate agents and vendor, claiming that the property was advertised falsely and alleging misleading conduct by the real estate agent. Malcolm and Samantha Stevenson have taken agency Bekdon Richards and vendor Tony Burchill to court, claiming losses and damages of over $178,000 after purchasing a two bedroom Victorian-style home in February 2014. In a statement of claim lodged last month...
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Vendors selling their multimillion-dollar homes this weekend could face a nasty shock at settlement time – the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars because of poor legal advice. This is because many may be unaware of new 10 per cent withholding tax rule, which came into force on July 1, and which applies to all property worth $2 million or more, including residential property. To avoid being hit by the stiff penalty, all vendors selling at this price point must...
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It’s hard to get a good price for a home with a bad history. Overseas, they are called ‘Stigma Homes’, where something terrible has happened in the past, usually a murder. Stigma homes – or ‘Murder Homes’ as they seem to be called in Australia – can be hard to sell – as at least one irate home-owner in Melbourne is discovering. Every time likely buyers punch the address of Judy’s home into a search...
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“You can’t sell a secret.” This is a line given by thousands of agents to thousands of home-sellers in order to persuade sellers to splash out more and more money advertising their homes. The theory goes that the more places you advertise your home, the more buyers you reach. Of course, anyone who knows anything about basic marketing knows that such reasoning is nonsense because most buyers look in several places during their search for...
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