Sub dividing problem

Hi, We have found a block of land in the Marion council area. The owner knocked down and rebuilt on half the land and is now selling the remaining corner block. Contacted Marion council and the tree needs to be removed but she said that the land has not been sub divided cos the owner won't remove the tree.
The Real estate agent told us that the owner (aged90) won't be removing the tree or paying to sub divide. The buyer pays.
Will this work? What precautions will we need as to not lose this land after paying out $30k for fees and tree removal?

 

How can you buy the land if it does not have a title?
What are you buying?
If you go ahead, consult a solicitor before you sign anything.
A conveyancer may not have enough legal knowledge.

 

I'm buying a suburban block of land to build a house. It's being sold as a proposed allotment according to the agent

 

Technically I suppose it's possible but it's extremely messy. You could have an offer accepted with settlement to occur after titles are issued but the risk of course comes down to you having to pay to meet those clearances before titles are issued - these can be things like the tree, infrastructure costs (new water, power, sewer connections $$$), council contributions etc

It is unlikely you can wrap those costs into a mortgage as it's pre purchase and therefore you would eat into your cash savings which can be problematic if they are needed for your mortgage deposit/

 

The lot does not exist as a separate parcel of land. You are buying the vendor's dream and the agent's spin.

What does your solicitor say? How is the lot described on title?

The owner would have to accept an offer which is subject to the vendor meeting the conditions to get the subdivision completed & the land registered as you can't transfer the title without it (unless you're buying her house as well).

 

All the infrastructure is there . Water meter, sewer, power. We have the cash for the tree and sub division and will then get a bridging loan for the land and build.

 

It seems from what you've said that the vendor (90yo) wants to transfer all the risks onto the purchaser (you). In addition to all the other risks outlined above, you have the risk, (at 90 yrs of age) of a vendor passing away, becoming sick, or not of sound mind - which then has repercussions as to the completion of the contract.

If it were me wanting to buy land, I'd find a block without such issues, UNLESS it came with a significant discount AND it was not to important whether you ended up with it or not. You'll have more issues when building to add to your concerns anyway - just on a normal land purchase.

 

After contacting a lawyer who advised me to contact council and ask specific questions, I found out that the vendor has paid for the subdivision back in 2015 , But the title has not been issued due to the tree not being removed.
This is not what the agent wrote in an email he said we had to factor the cost of sub dividing in our offer,
Just noticed that the listing has been taken down.
Will visit the vendor tomorrow to see if he is still willing to sell

 

Please be aware that in my state (and probably yours) that subdivision approval does have an expiry. In terms of process for our state we apply to the planning department for approval, they give conditional approval subject to various conditions being met (new power, sewer, water, council conditions and presumably in your case a tree removal but there may be more), then those items are met and then it gets unconditional approval. If unconditional approval is not met before the expiry then it needs to be applied for again and the remaining items and potentially any new ones then met then unconditional approval and off to get new titles.

Paying for "subdivision" is a very vague term. They could mean the application to subdivide, they could mean the fees to have the new title released, they could mean any number of things.

If you do intend to pursue this I would speak to a surveyor who can advise you properly about what is left and/or required to do. Do not rely on advice from the REA or the vendor.

 

This what council wrote " assuming the land division application was amended to include the tree removal, development plan consent land division consent and development approval could be anticipated quickly"
"The only remaining cost is the replacement if the significant tree

 

I would expect that there still would be non-council costs that might be applicable. A surveyor or conveyancer/lawyer would need to handle the lodgement of the completed survey for the creation of the new title

 

Ok thanks

 

@Erica you’ve done a few of these. Any words of advice?

 

My advice "run away!".

Original purchaser, be patient, a nice hassle free, properly subdivided block of land with it's own torrens title will come on the market soon no doubt, you don't need the headaches this block of land will cause!

 

An update!
We visited the aged owners of the land and they agreed to sell to us. We liased through their son who engaged with Marion council and a conveyancer.
We paid for the tree removal and Marion council sent the subdivision application to the LTO. They approved the tree removal in days. When we received Form 1 we noticed that he hadn't paid council rates for some time and the council wants to be paid from the sale.
Hoping the council will be quick in approving our building plans when they get them.

 

Just read this thread. Interested to know how your lawyer set this purchase up for you.

Did you pay the subdivision costs you mentioned above directly? Or did you pay a deposit for the land that was released to the vendor to be used to finalise the subdivision?

 

We are paying the deposit today which will go into their Conveyancers trust fund. The vendor has financed the subdivision. We are paying half of the transfer costs.

 

An Update : we paid for tree removal and the vendors paid for the subdivision. Settlement was last Monday. We bought the land for a very good price and our build starts next week.

 

Cynical, but this has literally happened in Perth. Police ended up involved.

Happy days! I am glad it worked out for you.

 

What would the lot number be? Could just imagine someone trying to sell their vacant half of the lot and write down the lot number for the entire property and having to loose their house hahah. If their dumb enough to think that anything is possible

More interested to know who this REA. They should have a clue even if they are recent to the industry.