buzzer

Hi Guys,

been here in Perth for 9 months and finally decided to jump into the property market (I know it's the wrong time but a gal's gotta live somewhere...)

Anyway, the property is tenanted. They have had 2 months notice to go but have not budged. Settlement is due in a few days, and to add insult to injury the house is trashed and will need to be fumigated before I let my kids into it.

My question is - can I pull out of the sale? I know it's not the owners fault but I cannot wait forever for the tenants to get their act together (and do some more damage possibly - who knows?)

I called a solicitor but they want to charge $325 an hour for advice, so I want to make sure I have a case before I go down this route....

Has anyone else experienced anything like this? As if the exchange rate isn't kicking my backside enough right now, we have this to contend with.

Maybe the moral of the story is......RENT!

Sorry if I sound garbled but I really need to vent. Never thought I would think the UK way of buying houses would be better than the Oz way.

Anyway, any advice would be most thankfully received!

Cheers, Buzzer

sj oldfield

As far as I am aware you can not pull out at this point, however the owner of the property SHOULD have an insurance policy in place for this sort of incident! Hope you sort it!

Sammy T

Hi

Sorry to hear of your problems, when you signed the contract did it have in a clause about the tenants? Also I'm sure there usually something about the seller haveing to remove rubbish and leave the property as it was when you both accepted the contract?

Hopefully one of the more brainy/experienced types will be along shortly with some better advice.

Sam

Siren & Brian

Can you pull out... yes but will cost you many many tens of thousands.

Presuming on your Offer and Acceptance the property was for vacant posession and therfore the vendors must give you this for settlement to take place and can be liable for costs if delay in settlement is caused by them or their tenants.

Also the property has to be in the same condition as you inspected it when you wrote up the offer and if not can delay settlement aresponsibilityility by the current vendors. The tenants are their responcibilty.

I would have a firm word with their agent and tell them that if its not sorted you will be asking for costs if any delay in settlement and get your settlement agent to go after the money because this is what you pay them for.

Deutschmaster

I was wondering - here in Victoria we have a guide for tenants and landlords

http://www.consumer.vic.gov.au/CA256902000FE154/Lookup/CAV_Publications_Renting/$file/RentingComplete.pdf

Do you have something similar in WA? Here the landlord would have to give notice to kick the tenants out. If the tenants don't go within the required period then the landlord has to apply to a court (VCAT I think) to remove them.

spottydog

Do you not have a conveyancer/solicitor working for you in this purchase, if you do I would ask them as they should be aware of these sort of circumstances and your position when this happens

Also check what the contract says as most specify vacant possession which means you get the place empty, not with tenants.

In NSW you can do a pre completion inspection to check all is as when you put the offer in, I don't know if the same exists in WA.

I'm not sure whether you will be able to pull out but I would have thought you should get the property in the way you expected it not the current situation.

buzzer

Thanks for all your advice guys.

I have called every man and his dog about this over the past few days, and it seems legally that we do not have enough grounds to pull out.

We have specified 'vacant possession' (thankfully!) on the agreement, so at least we have one thing in our favour, but its the vacant possession that seems hard to come by!

And regarding the final inspection - that is when we saw that the state of the place had deteriorated significantly since we viewed the property originally. I really feel for the sellers, but hopefully they have some insurance to cover the damages (don't think the bond would cover it!)

I believe the only thing we can do is extend our lease on our current rental and ask our settlement agent to press for penalty charges due to delay in completion. Oh, and wait for the court date!

I blame Maggie Thatcher! Wasn't it her who said owning property was the 'be all and end all'?!

Think this forum is the only thing keeping me sane right now!!! :curse:

Buzzer

spottydog

As a Thatcherite kid myself I'd say hold in there, in a few months you'll be enjoying your home remembering these troubles as an interesting dinner table story.

Spottydog, looking forward to being a home owner again once she can just find the home for her

shorrock

If the place is damaged since you signed the contract then you have a right to get the current owner to get it back into a state that it was in when you signed the contract. The issue you have is one of proving the state when you signed the contract. If you had an inspection report done they should have taken photos of the place which will help. No inspection or no photos of state at contract signing then your pritty much out of luck. Learn from it for when you buy your next property.

Regarding vacant possesion then I think this is a state by state issue. Contacting the person who is handling the legal asspect of your contact is the best bet. I know that when we bought our place 4 years ago in NSW. The estate agent forgot to bring the deposit money along to the contract signing. So they had to delay it for 1 day. Our solicitor renegotiated our buying price and managed to save use 5k for the issue. He mentioned that we could have gone to court over the issue and potentially won more, but he also said we could have lost. The agent cut use a cheque for the money . Even though we had moved in already (before exchange).


We moved in 8 weeks before contract exchanged and had to sign a waiver regarding damaged property that may happen before contract exchange. So this is a big deal if the property is different than when you signed.

I would recommend you pay the money and seek legal advice. $400 - $500 for advice on the cost of a house investment is nothing. I'm always taken back when people don't spend a few hundred dollars on inspection or legal advice when buying a house. You are dropping some serious cash and taking a big risk. How are you going to feel when you exchange and find out they have impacted the structure and it's going to cost thousands to fix.