hello all. been reading these posts for some tips and tricks - i sure need them - after a near scam recently! Was making a purchase with cash - but as time went by got very suss, pre-exchange. Seemed to me my conveyancer was batting for the other team..? The contract itself was abysmal... but my conveyancer never pointed that out - i had to search property contracts to weed out the bull ...it contained special conditions like "you agree have not relied on anything the vendor or the agent has told you" each time the conveyancer sent through the documents - there were more special conditions added or the existing ones became longer - but with no word from my conveyancer - except comments like "that's just a formality" "no need to check with council" "just put as cross through the fixtures yourself" "probably an oversight by the vendors solicitor" "you don't need a witness" I played along to buy time whilst i researched. The icing on the cake - the morning they were hoping i would sign - the conveyancer re-sent through the contract - and the price was hiked up by $5,000 in the meantime - i discovered only parts of the land edition was present & much of it was missing - there was no vendors statement at all Needless to say - i didn't sign the contract - so any ideas of what was happening here?? was it a scam i wonder?? did they see "cash purchase" and run with that? I can only describe the agent as pushy &... involved. so a team of three? Very confused, becky
Use a lawyer, not conveyancer. Was it just a straight house, or was it a farm or something? The Y-man
not the most pleasant experience, but anyway a lesson for you and all the people who read this. thanks for sharing!
Was it the same conveyancing company as the vendor was using? Sure there may not be much choice in some areas however if they were acting for both parties and did not inform you, then they may have breached their responsibility to work in your best interests.
Thanks guys for your responses... I'm not really sure how to navigate these forums I asked her directly if she was working for the vendor's solicitors & she assured me she has no affiliation, which is a lie It's interesting because we all live in this town - so motives? The contract would not stand up in court - but by then the $ is gone right? I wonder if this conveyancer got sucked in by the agent (newer to town) & solicitor - or even if it was really her? We communicated via phone & email - covid - which made me suss (as essential service?). Wonder if the vendor knew? There has been cases where they didn't ... The vendor's agent & the solicitor regularly appear in court - think the agent was arrested some years back... hmmm nice bunch thoughts anyone?
If it's a small town, there's a good chance that the conveyancer and vendors solcitor know each other. That doesn't mean they're working together. More likely the conveyancer is working to align themselves with the agent, that's the hand that's feeding them. This isn't to suggest that referral relationships are a bad thing, usually quite the opposite. The key is that both businesses need to have their interests aligned to the person they're representing. A Real Estate Agent referring a conveyancer to a purchaser isn't good. The agent supposed to act in the vendors interests, the conveyancer should be representing the purchaser. The conflict of interest existings for the conveyancer because they will want to make a good impression on the agent to get more referrals. The purchaser is likely to be a single transaction and not that important in the grand scheme of things. A buyers agent referring a conveyancer is usually fine. The buyers agent represents the purchaser as does the conveyancer. The BA's interests are served by the purchaser being impressed with buying a good property, if the conveyancer is doing their job well, they'll facilitate this. Furthermore if the conveyancer does a lousy job, the BA is likely to be embarressed, so they'll cut off a bad conveyancer very quickly if necessary. Generally conveyancer do act in their clients interests, but I have seen a similar case or two myself. One client purchased a block of land from a developer and the developer recommended the conveyancer. I was appauled with the contract T's & C's. The conveyancers response was that she'd reviewed 150 contracts from the developer and didn't see any problems. I can't imagine she would ever have a problem with a contract from that developer given they effectively fund her business.
yes i am intending on reporting - but my main concern is my safety - don't know how sophisticated this little group is...
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