ohippy

We put an offer in on a house a few weeks ago and it was accepted. I know that this is now binding but today we received the documents from our settlement agent and there were things in there that I didn't understand. I did ring the guy but he was quite patronising so am now asking you guys.

1. I am putting my trust fund down as a deposit. Is there any way I can safe guard this money in case hubby and I split up ? Agent says that everything is split 50/50 regardless of where it came from.
2. What is a final inspection and do I want one ?
3. What is the provisional sum they retain for ? It states adjustment of rates and taxes - but what is that actually ?

Also, we will have to break our lease on our rental. Has anyone else done this and if so, about how much do they charge you other than the rent until end of lease/someone else moves in ?

PS - anyone need a rental from 12th December ?

thebears

Hi ohippy,

We just went through a 30 day purchase and my thoughts are

1 This relates not just to a house purchase but between you and your OH. your marital assets come under local marital law - have no idea on this but assume everything is 50 50. (husband gets the debt the wife gets the equity )

2 Final inspection is a week or few days before settlement - basically a quick walk through to ensure no major holes in the walls or flooring/fixtures taken.

3 We asked this question to - the rates for the local area are prepaid for 12 months. There are a few bits and bobs for taxes and stamp duty on this and that.

We paid $1500 for solicitors (which included those costs in point 3). $435 for property inspection and $310 for a pest control inspection.

No other costs - except getting extra pair of keys cut.

flip

1. Talk to a solicitor, this is more to do with family law than conveyancing.
2. Final inspection also is supposed to give you a chance to find which keys work what, where the septic tank pipes are, etc
3. No idea
4. They can charge you costs of reletting the property and any lapse in rental payments, this can be very expensive but once you've decided you're moving the rents dead money anyway. Your other alternative is to keep asking on here or anywhere else you might find a tenant yourself. Probably useful to say how long your lease remains (oh and to put it under it's own heading as a new post).

ohippy

Thanks for the replies. Looks like our fees are high too as agent charging us $1400 plus postage, land search, transfer fees etc, then they've retained $1400 !! What was the $435 for the property inspection ? Was that charged by the loan company ?

lucy.summers

Hi you,

Looks like fun, An estate agent told us that there is just a one off payment you can do to break contract. It was only about $70. Not sure whether this is right or not as seems a bit easy but worth looking into to.

Can you PM me your house details - haven't seen it yet!!!!!!

Hope all still going OK.

Lucy.

The Corderys

Hi
Firstly Congratulations on your first home buy!!!
Having been through this once and just doing it for the second time I might be able to help with a couple of things.

1, Sorry no help whatsoever
2. Final Inspection. Definately worth doing, make sure that everything that you're expecting to be in the price is still there and that everything that is there works as it should, if not the vendor can fix it for you.(if you choose not to and something was missing/broken I don't think you'd have a comeback)
3. From what I remeber it is to change the rates into your name and I think to pay them for the rest of the year, so not bad as you've got nothing else to pay until next financial year. Our settlement agent 1st time sent us copies of the bills the other people had paid, you're basically reimbursing the vendors for your share of the year I think.
4. I think it depends on your landlords/letting agents, often they will let you off if you find someone else, so as flip said, put a notice up on here, there's people looking for places all the time.

His fees do seem a little bit high, unfortunately I don't know what you can do about it now. I'm affraid it might just have to go down experience, and it's there loss as lets face it you'll probably not use them again if you ever want to buy/sell anything else. Most settlement agents will try and discount to outprice each other, Ours was very good 1st time and that's why we're using her again , but she gives us a discount off the standard 1400 as we were given her card by our broker the first time.. I think she cost about 700.

sel

Our break lease fee was $97.95 and you have to pay rent up until they find a new tennant or your contract is up and maintain property. Regardless of how much time you have left on your contract the new tennant will start a new contract and is not able to take on time remaining time from old one unless actual owner of house agrees and most do not because agents moan. There will be other charges like final inspection fee ($45.00) & meter reading fee ($12.65). Also they will charge you for advertising but you have the option if you want to advertise it yourself. I advertised through the agent but told them to initially only put it on the internet and if after a month no joy then to put in paper. Few weeks on the net and it was snapped up (advertising fee was $22.50).

Good luck with everything soooo exciting

flip

The Bears and Flip are both in Melbourne so situation could well be different over in Western Australia. Who's retained $1400, what is the agent charging you for? Is this your buyer's agent or their estate agent? Have you actually spoken to your solicitor? Ours was really helpful and you may be able to chat on the phone for easy and most relevant support. Our inspection was only a couple of hundred but we didn't have time to do a pest inspection (our surveyor did check though), other fees if I remember correctly were for searches on easement, conveyancing, stamp duty, ...

I really think you're best talking to your solicitor.

northernbird

They retain the money for the rates and water rates. They request information from the shire and the water corporation on how much you will owe from settlement to the end of the year. When they receive that information they will then adjust the figures on the next statement you receive from them. An inspection is vital, if the house you are buying has a pool consider getting a pool company to inspect the pool and its parts. You will also have to have a white ant inspection, we paid a little over $100 for ours.


$1400 for settlement agent sounds expensive it that is just for the agent fee. I got my bills out from my recent purchase and we paid $1237 inclusive of all enquiry fees and disbursements.

brido

Seriously now,If you need to ask that,why even bother buying a house with him ?!?!?! Lol.

thebears

I did the property inspection and pest control myself - put the offer down subject to "my satisfaction" ie even if the property report came back okay I could still walk away - ie if there was no termites i could say that was not satisfactory because I wanted termites so i could pull the property down and rebuild.

I think the solicitors portion was $650+vat the rest of the $1500 was the fees including rates, searches etc.

We also paid about $1500 to the bank for mortgage registration etc

It maybe your charges are all rolled up into a combination of all of that.

by the sea side

We broke the lease on our rental.They charged us $242.00 for reletting fee.Any advertisements in the paper you pay for.If the house isn't let you have to continue paying the rent.This didn't happen with us we found someone within a week but the rental market is very tight here.They ended up owing us money.They are also very keen on house inspection.

ohippy

Wow, they like to hit you with the charges don't they !!!

ohippy

Can I swear ???????!!!!!!!!!!!

Gutted - should have done my homework before and not after !

ohippy

Did you get your money back ?