OPINION by Tim O’Dwyer M.A., LL.B Solicitor Consumer Advocate watchdog@argonautlegal.com.au On 27th May Peter and Helen Kettle contracted to sell both units of their Surfers Paradise duplex (for $1.2 million and $800,000 respectively) to Milani Properties Pty. Ltd. Deposits totalling $170,000 were paid to Milani’s solicitor’s trust account. Settlement of each contract was due on 13th July, subject to finance approval by the “Finance Date” of 17th June. The finance clause in both contracts...
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OPINION by Tim O’Dwyer M.A., LL.B Solicitor Consumer Advocate watchdog@argonautlegal.com.au When the purchaser of an up-market home unexpectedly says settlement won’t take place, does the vendor still have to move out before terminating and claiming damages? Donna Kelly-Corbett was pleased when she sold her home at auction for $1.2 million. Although she already had a finance-approved contract to purchase her next home, her purchase contract was not conditional on the prior sale. Because both contracts were due...
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OPINIONby Peter Mericka B.A., LL.BReal Estate LawyerQualified Practising Conveyancer VictoriaDirector Lawyers Real Estate Pty Ltd This is my first attempt at video blogging. Please provide me with your feedback, and any tips you have to offer on improvements I can make for future video blog postings. I’ve tried to keep it informal and simple (note the open-necked shirt and unscripted delivery), but I’ll be guided by readers as to what’s best. To view the video...
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OPINIONby Tim O’Dwyer M.A., LL.BSolicitorConsumer Advocate watchdog@argonautlegal.com.au To my mind agents particularly should be prohibited from giving buyers so much as a bus timetable, and from recommending even the local Chinese restaurant. Needless to say, solicitors and other service providers to residential buyers should also be prohibited from acting if they are not independent of everyone else involved in the transaction. A recent edition of Australian Property Investor Magazine ( http://www.apimagazine.com.au/ ), on sale...
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OPINIONby Tim O’Dwyer M.A., LL.BSolicitorConsumer Advocate watchdog@argonautlegal.com.au After many years as a conveyancing solicitor I identified three immutable rules of real estate. The first is that salespersons move fast. The second is that solicitors move slowly. And the third, the reason for the first two, is that buyers and sellers alike can change their minds. When real estate consumers – particularly buyers – change their minds part-way through contracts, their conveyancing solicitors are expected...
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OPINIONby Tim O’Dwyer M.A., LL.BSolicitorConsumer Advocate watchdog@argonautlegal.com.au Several months after contracting to buy six beach resort units, as well as the resort’s management and letting rights, Fred Sutton had second thoughts about his company’s purchase. No matter that the seller company had already made some post-contract concessions: a price reduction on the rights contract, and extensions of time for finance and the completion date of both contracts. Each contract was conditional on the other,...
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OPINIONby Tim O’Dwyer M.A., LL.BSolicitorConsumer Advocate watchdog@argonautlegal.com.au Contractual time limits which run out between Christmas and New Year should, as this Blog has previously shown, ring alarm bells for purchasers and their legal advisers. Nevertheless, neither developer Bannercorp* Pty Ltd nor its solicitors heard so much as a tingle when a critical condition in Bannercorp’s time-of-the-essence purchase contract (dated 3rd August, 2007) was mutually extended from 90 to 150 days from the contract date. This...
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by George Rousos Director Industry Training Consultants george@itc.nsw.edu.au Statutory authorities must start exercising the same degree of care towards sellers as they do with buyers of properties. It was discovered and found on the NSW Office Of Fair Trading’s website, no cooling-off period applies to sellers of properties once contracts have been exchanged, sellers are generally bound to complete the agreement. (See the article “Sale Contracts” on the website of the...
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OPINIONby Peter Mericka B.A., LL.BReal Estate LawyerQualified Practising Conveyancer VictoriaDirector Lawyers Real Estate Pty Ltd Real estate agents have been parading about in their “negotiator” suits like the naked emporer in his invisible new clothes, trying to convince consumers of their competence in real estate negotiations. I have had enough of incompetent real estate agents’ stupid mistakes, deceptive practices and consumer indifference. I have now banned real estate agents from the negotiation stage of...
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OPINIONby Tim O’Dwyer M.A., LL.BSolicitorConsumer Advocate watchdog@argonautlegal.com.au A Logan City (Queensland) couple, Jose and Maria, heard glowing reports from a Filipino friend of his negatively-geared property investments. After Jose and Maria showed some interest in making such investment themselves their friend helpfully arranged some introductions for them. Before long this pair of novice property investors found themselves signing contracts through an estate agent and financial adviser not only for the purchase of a block...
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