Advice needed: settlement protection for purchaser - septic system

I purchased a farm with settlement due tomorrow. It has a septic system where recently I identified through Council inquiries that the owners have not engaged a plumber for quarterly maintenance and reporting to Council on the system for the past three years. Subsequent to my inquiry, Council issued a notice to owners to rectify the matter. The owners failed to comply and today Council advised me that they no longer allow the septic system to be used until matter is rectified. This could take months and what repairs/replacement might be needed, no one knows at present. Meanwhile, my solicitor has been holding the 90% of the purchase price in trust account since last week, in preparation for settlement. What are my settlement rights in this situation?

This settlement also has a missing safety fence issue for the swimming pool, for which I sought advice from the members of this community, through a separate thread.

 

Impossible to say without knowing what you contracted to do. What does. Your lawyer say?

 

should have been picked up with the building report ??



if you go ahead with the purchase
You need to engage a qualified plumber to under take the quarterly maintenance inspections
and bring it up to Australian Standards

 

Thank you everyone for input. Plumbing work seems to have been done but report not submitted to Council. Council certificate was required for settlement, which was delayed. Now owners are trying to get the Certificate, but Council is very busy with assessments and not sure when they will get to it. So we are all kind of stuck, waiting for Council so we could proceed with settlement. Trouble is, no one knows how long the process will take. I still want the property though. Not sure who is really to be blamed for the delay?!

 

If it were me, I’d just settle but hold back 2 times what it costs to fix, if you had to fix it yourself, in your solicitor’s Trust Account.

Once Council has issued the certificate, release the balance of the Trust monies to the seller.

It does not matter who is to blame. There are no penalties applied to the vendor (after all it was the sellers solicitor who wrote the contract you signed). There are penalties for you though as purchaser if the vendor is ready to settle and you are not.

 

Thank you for your advice. My solicitor offered exactly this but the vendors did not agree.

 

Do you consider the vendors being ready to settle if they don't the Council certificate of compliance?

 

I suppose there is no incentive for the vendors to vacate? They’ll just stay until Council issues the certificate. Do you know where they are moving to? What is their situation? ie will they have 2 mortgages? Work on something you can all live with. Get the selling agent involved in the negotiations. He/she will not get their commission until it settles. So they are incentivised to make it happen.

 

Property is already vacated. Selling agent is working with Council too. Everyone is keen to have settlement done and over with.

 

What makes you think the plumbing works have been done ?

Ask for a copy of the plumbing cert/report to be submitted to council for compliance, request access to the property to verify works were actually done and arrange to settle the following working week
If the works haven't been done then it's yet another request to complete or penalties as per contract will apply (as the cert was their responsibility to comply, they have delayed settlement) .

Your posts are all over the shop, "works appear to have been done", "but report not submitted to council", "we are all kind of stuck, waiting for council".......... which is it ?
You can't be waiting "for" council if the report hasn't been submitted to them

 

You are correct; I don't know if the plumbing works have been done. The vendor supplied a plumber's invoice, but I left three messages for plumber to confirm he did the work and he has not returned my calls. Council will not tell me what evidence of plumbing work was submitted to them, if any. Council just wrote to me and my solicitor, to advise they rescinded the septic system's approval to operate because inspection reports were not submitted to them and will not reinstate the approval until they inspect the property, advise what work needs to be done, and satisfy themselves that this work was completed to their satisfaction. So to my mind, I cannot proceed with settlement now even if I want to, because with a septic system that does not have Council approval to be used, I cannot even live in the house, can I?

 

When was/is settlement day ?

If it has passed then your solicitor should be serving the vendor with demands to comply with council requirements as the property can't settle due to their lack of action.

In addition you solicitor should be serving the vendor with default of contract and compensation as per contract conditions.

 

Settlement was this last Monday. Thank you for your suggestion, I will ask my solicitor to do so next Monday.