Settlement Dilemmas

What would happen if the tenant insist to stay on?

 

I bought a new home and did a inspect 2 days prior and NOTHING was ready other than painting was done and some floor tiles laid.. I was assured it would be complete. I didnt agree. So I had to arrange a noon Friday inspect. It was like a scene on The Block or one of those reno shows with inspection on the Friday with no less then 50+ tradies onsite. Its was insane. By 3pm that day it was like a showroom with only a cleaner (vacuuming new carpet and washing tiled floors and windows) and a painter doing a few light touch ups. I was promised we would have the appliances in and agreed to settle. 3:30pm it was done. That said the new landscaping was JUST laid. At 4pm a AC installer arrived, clothes line, appliances and water heater went in and so did the remote roller doors etc....At 4:30 they took the portaloo off the driveway. 5pm it was silent.

Clarenden homes. Despite the rush no evident defects noted !!

 

You would need a GPS to find ship creek

 

The Vendor's problem has now become your (the new owner's) problem.

People don't always understand and not all solicitors are pragmatic in the way they deal with things.

Experienced solicitors will see this stuff coming from a mile away and will advise you on what to do. Not so experienced solicitors will go by text book and in the end you get screwed over.

I still remember my first purchase. Lots of a lessons learned. One of them was with the solicitor.

I didn't due my due diligence on the person and simply asked my mate who had also purchased a property which solicitor he had used.

That solicitor told me a few things - and while in theory they were correct, in a practical sense, it wasn't a complete picture.

- Don't offer the 0.25% until you've done the B&P report
[They didn't want me to lose money.]

- Don't sign anything until I (the solicitor) has read through the entire contract (this was on a Saturday afternoon). I'll give you an answer by Monday with the list of conditions that should be removed.
[They didn't want me to get stuck in a contract where I would get screwed.]

It was the same property, but an experienced solicitor (in my opinion) would have pointed out that if I did sign the contract, and chose not to proceed it would have cost me 0.25%, but in doing so, I would be able to lock the vendor in for the cooling off period and prevent anyone else from swooping in and taking the property from under me.

In addition,
- a B&P can be turned around in 24-48 hours
- clauses can always be altered post signing but within the cooling period (subject to vendor solicitor agreeing)
- extended cooling off periods can always be negotiated

Anyway, I learnt a very important lesson that day - verbal agreements don't mean squat.

 

To avoid all these dramas, the best option is to make a seperate cheque for 1% of the purchase price and specify in the contract that this cheque will be held by your solicitor until the following day of the settlement pending satisfactory handover (keys, reasonably clean condition and removal of all rubbish etc.).

Usually just a mention of this condition results in a very satisfactory handover.