Buyer pulls out a week before settlement with no penalty?

which part are you mistaken about?

The biggest question should be is the contract unconditional, or not? Or is the subject to finance clause still outstanding somehow?

 

Get a lawyer, pronto.

We also bought in Qld, settled last week. It wasn't until the contract went unconditional that it came to light that this was not the best time to buy something. For the first time in our lives, we did consider pulling out of the sale. At the end we decided to just go with it. It will be, what it will be. Already got tenants lined up.

 

WTF!
This person should not be practicing. Get some proper legal advice.

 

suggestion: google the persons name and see if they actually exist as a member of westpac,

and if they do, give them a quick call and ask them if the email address is correct or they actually sent it

 

Not legal advice but the bank may have changed the contract with the buyer, but they can't change the contract between you and the buyer, you would have to sign off on it. If your contract went unconditional last week it sounds like they are on the hook, legally.

Did you get a %10 deposit?

 

They said they got $1000 which also makes me really suss.



To be fair @Terry_w there is so much WTF in this thread.

 

I am guessing it was something like this

1 Mar contract entered into with a 14 day subject to finance clause
13th of Mar buyer confirms they have finance and the condition is met.
Contract now unconditional
18th of Mar they start to suffer from buyers remorse
19th Mar they speak to their conveyancer who says get a letter from your bank that finance is no longer approved
19th of Mar they forge a letter from Westpac
20th Mar their side sends your side and makes up story about finance withdrawn to Covit19 clause
21th your conveyancer, who may not be qualified, accepts their story and tells you the bad news.

 

Yes, if the property is worth $10,000

 

Hmm, nothing about the original post sounds right.

 

That's the whole problem in this thread, without seeing what's on the sale contract everyone is guessing. I've had an informal letter like that from Westpac staff before too, the loans officer I dealt with barely knew a word of English, so bad I almost walked on the whole deal.

 

I have purchased properties with $1k-$5k deposit. I always offer the absolute minimum deposit and have found more often than not the REA and seller take it without even questioning.

There is no obligation to pay a 10% deposit, but examples like this show why it is in the sellers interest to push for as big a deposit as possible.

 

Only taking a $1000 deposit appears to be pretty standard practice in QLD. It shocked me when I first encountered it.
But having bought a couple of properties in QLD through different solicitors now, it does indeed appear to be the way they do things here. I personally thought it was crazy that the vendors were only asking $1000 as deposit, with each purchaser. Yet everyone in the industry told me that was standard. The purchaser is still liable for the entire amount if the contract goes unconditional though.

Very different from my experiences in ACT and NSW.

 

Fair enough! Admittedly I have bought two properties in Queensland but I don’t remember what deposits we gave. Seems silly when you could encounter a situation like this!

 

Standard in QLD as others have said however if the correct process was followed then the remainder of deposit is due as soon as the finance is unconditional. Typical finance clause in QLD is 14 or 21 days, (not 5 weeks, although maybe the seller agreed to this?) if finance can't be obtained in that time frame then the buyer can get out of the contract.
If the purchaser is borrowing 95% + LMI then the max you could get at unconditional is 5% - still better than $1000 though.

 

The deposit is part of the negotiations. Sounds like the op just accepted what the buyer offered.

 

I just settled on a QLD property on Monday. And I only paid a $1000 deposit up till settlement date then I paid everything else on settlement. So to my understanding, this is the norm. Just learnt that it will be different when I start buying in other states Dx

I have gotten out of a contract before as my bank declined my finance but I got a legitimate letter from the bank and passed that on to the seller's solicitor and they accepted it. It's appalling that if your conveyancer doesn't know what they are doing that the other party can easily forge a letter and mislead you into 'cancelling' the sale on an unconditional contract?? If this can easily be done then it is definitely very concerning.

 

This is not the norm in QLD no way, absolutely a risk for the seller and of all the purchases I've financed in QLD not one has only paid $1000 until settlement, most pay $1000 initial holding deposit with remainder (10%) due on unconditional finance, anything can be done if the seller agrees, so this could happen but it's certainly not normal in any sense.

 

All of our purchases in QLD were only $1000 until settlement.
I seriously thought it was just nuts, hence I kept asking everyone about it, only to be told that was 'standard practice' in QLD by everyone, including my own solicitor.

I didn't push the issue though, seeing as I was the purchaser and it didn't actually negatively impact me, and my solictor held my entire deposit for me in each case regardless, because that was easier for me.

 

So my seller has essentially left themselves exposed and was just hoping that nothing happens prior to settlement and that I actually do have all the funds required to pay. Because yes I had a 14 day finance clause but I just had to ensure I got unconditional finance by that date and just told them that I can satisfy the finance clause. No one told me to pay anything and I didn't know the process so I just didn't end up paying anything until settlement. So I'm not sure who is responsible for getting me to pay on the date of finance going unconditional because no one did.