General Vendor Rant...

I have a spare few minutes and thought I share my recent experience of settlement day.
not overly dramatic but a good story anyway.

Drove up to Brisbane from Sydney with wife and kids for a few days of theme parks prior to settlement.

On settlement day I arranged a pre settlement inspection to show my wife the property (she hadnt seen it) and to make sure that agent had the keys.
Received a call from my solicitor to advise settlement had taken place and the agent has been notified to release keys..Great News.
Mucked around for half an hour and sent a text to the agent to confirm where I can collect the from.
He called my back 20 minutes later to advise that the owner had the keys and he was leaving work in an hour or two and should be home and I should be able to have the keys later that night!!!

What the!!!

Well that really wasnt acceptable especially as I had the kids in the car and no where to go so started the ring around between my solicitor, the agent and his principle. After an hour of not getting anywhere and a few heated words to the agent, I decided to be a "little proactive" and turn up at the owners house (this can only end well :0) knocked on the door and the wife answered and she fumbled around for 20 minutes and told me she didnt have any keys..not even one.
Kids in the cars going ****ing nuts and wife on the phone to all and sundry...Agent calls said his on his way to the owners house to get the keys!! I said great I'll seem him when he gets there...

30 minutes later the agent turns up with the vendor in the passenger seat, he walks into his house gets one key and hands it to the agent and walks back in....Agent gives me ONE KEY...After a few choice words to the agent he says " sort it out with your solicitor" and walks away!

Not letting this go, I knock on the vendors door and we exchange stern words...no swearing but very heated conversation. Long and the short he said he "can only find one key, there it is now go away". ....more heated words and he says that he'll look for some more and if he finds them he will drop them in later tonight....
Not getting anywhere and anticipating the police to be called soon I leave with one key.
Still receiving phone calls from the solicitor and principal.

He lives 300m from the property and an hour later (and almost 5 hours after settlement) he turns up at the house with another 3 keys.

Moral of the story...dont deal with this vendor! LOL.....or for that matter an agency in Forest Lake which rhymes with Looker. Feel free to ignore that last bit

 

Sounds like fun!

I've had a couple of issues with getting keys too.

One in Canberra the vendor was settling on a new purchase the same day as her sale to me settled. When I asked for the keys after settlement I got the biggest run around - no one had them, not the agent, owner or either of our solicitors. In the end it turned out my keys had been given to the solicitor for the vendor of my sellers new purchase. I found this out about 4.50pm on the Friday night, luckily that solicitor was right next door to my work and all worked out.

Other time was earlier this year in Adelaide. I got a key to a sliding door as part of pre settlement access... Expecting the rest at settlement. Asked for keys at settlement and agent said she had been given a big bunch of keys by the owner, but had thrown them out cos she wasn't sure which doors they belonged to.

 

Just adding another key nightmare at settlement. Not thinking that keys would be an issue at settlement we received a bunch of keys but none would unlock a small storeroom accessed from outside of property which we didn't even think to look inside at final inspection as it was never opened for us and was kind of overlooked. When we enquired, the agent thought the rental team might have a copy, borrowed their set and still no luck, then had to go back and forth with agent and vendor who says he has the key, then he hasn't as he can't find it, then he's probably lost it. By this time it's probably a few weeks after settlement and still hopeful that somehow the key would show up somewhere I decided to contact my conveyancer to see if anything can be done and was advised that once you've settled there's not much you can do about it unless you can't get into the premise so given it was a small store room it was just tough luck. To get a locksmith in, it was going to cost at least $120. I just left it as by then I had a tenant move in but will learn next time to physically test out all locks and keys myself at final inspection before settlement.

 

You sure there's no deadbody in a freezer in that storeroom !!

 

The thought did cross my mind @teetotal !! Probably the tenant's too as he apparently unpicked the lock and told me only afterwards when I told him I don't have the key. Nothing exciting to be found

 

I think there is a state where they Vendors have 12hrs or is it 24hrs after Settlement to hand over the keys. I always thought it quite peculiar.

 

Words defy me. WTF threw them out!!!!!

Did you put the bite on the agent to replace locks and/or replace keys.

They needed to be taught a lesson.

 

If the property was settled... wtf was the vendor's wife doing in there? No keys? How did she get in?

 

All that crap and stress and where did it get you?

These things happen.
Is acting like that what you want your kids to see?

I think it was very distasteful the way you behaved and a would have called the police on you or worse of you rocked up at my front door like that...

It's a key mate, it got there, just a bit late.
Just coz it inconvenienced you coz you were on a trip up there, there are much worse things that happen at settlement time than this.

You got a key, you could have arranged final inspection to see all the keys and locks were working. If not try get your solicitor to get the vendor to pay for a few new locks and keys post settlement. Not jumping up and down like this..

 

It was their IP, I rocked up to their house...just around the corner..

@Greyghost I was waiting for someone to have this opinion. Rest assured my kids didn't see anything or hear any type of behavior that I would expect them show. But thank you for your thoughts.