Access to property before settlement

[Houses Now]

Hi There,

I'm looking at a property at the moment that needs a fair bit of interior work (paint, carpet, kitchen, bathroom etc), nothing structural.

I'd like to get access to property before settlement to start on the reno so I can reduce the lost rent during the work. How and who is this negtiated with?

The property is being sold at auction by a government agency on behalf of an elderly owner who can't take care of herself. How can I ensure that I'm protected in case something happened to the deal from their side after I've started the renovation but still before settlement.

Is this common and have many people made this happen?

Thanks for your help.

 

[Dave Hooper]

Not sure that I would start any works prior to settlement.

What happens if things go pear shaped?

Usually you'd just contact the agent to arrange for additional inspections prior to settlement. They'll normally assist where possible. In your case, dealing with the govt. agency it may prove a lot more difficult.

 

[Rob Williams]

I always try to get access prior to settlement. Sometimes just to show tenants through, sometimes to commence work when there's lots to be done and the timeframe is tight.
It varies from agent to agent and vendor to vendor. I've done a full reno while waiting for settelment. I've also been denied access to commence work by the same agent, but with a different vendor.
Dealing with a government agency will complicate things for sure.
Maybe start putting together project plan and have tradies ready to roll on settlement day? That might be your next best option if they won't allow pre settlement access.

 

[wylie]

Last house we bought, we did a lot of (mostly) cosmetic work prior to settlement as were heading off to the US the day after settlement for two weeks.

Our solicitor advised us against getting her to liaise with the vendor's solicitor for early entry, as in her experience, most solicitors would advise the vendor to not allow the entry. She suggested we negotiate via the estate agent, which we did.

We got a simple letter from the daughter of the vendor (power of attorney)
who was going into a nursing home, allowing us to paint and pull up carpet. We asked the daughter to call in any time, which she did, and gave us verbal permission to do more work. We could have had it put in writing, but were happy with the verbal.

If the sale had fallen through or been held up (for example, if the mother had passed away before settlement) we risked having spent a lot of our time and some money on paint etc. The way we saw it, we were improving the value, so we were prepared to take the risk.

I have to say that as we spent more and more money, I started to get a bit nervous (especially when we took a wall down and ripped out the bathroom ). All was okay though.

 

[Houses Now]

Thanks for your replies.

I'll see how we go at the auction and if successful liase with the agent if we can arrange to get in before settlement. Even if only to get tradesman organised a plan organised as Robwilliams590 suggested.

 

[George]

Repairs before auction might be counter-prductive.

Imagine you improve the look of property before auction and then you have to bid up to pay for your improvement to buy that property.

Or I got it wrong, that it is after auction, but before settlement?

 

[Superstitionist]

My solicitor always suggest not to obtain the key from the agent to access the property by yourself before settlement, as she said if the property has damaged and broken-in afterwards, most likely the vendor's insurance company will give you a hard time, and if the property is not insured, then it will make thing even more complicate...

Super.

 

[The Y-man]

We've sold a property and the buyers have requested early access.

My soli's have written up a License agreement whereby the property is effectively rented to the purchasers (the market "full rent" is about $200pw. The purchasers negotiated this to $120 since they were not going to be living there - we accepted this) AND an early release of bond.

Quite common apparently...

Cheers,

The Y-man

 

[wanty]

Can't you gain entry to a property to do renos etc and even have a deal put in place to on sell a property the day after you take possesion. ie flip a property.

 

[arungounder]

I have got early access to 3 property's that I have bought. The deal is

1) I informed the RE agent before I put in the offer if my offer was accepted I would like early access to the property to paint/tidy up etc...
2) Got my solicitor to email the vendors solicitor about the early access date.
3) Obtained Insurance and faxed it to the Vendors Solicitor.
4) Vendor's solicitor instructed the Real Estate Agent to release the keys to me.

The first property I bought I was not given permission to stay over night at the property. The other property's came with no condition.

None of the property's were bought at Auction. I would not rennovate a property that goes to auction because you dont know if there are others interested in the same property especially after the Renno and they could push the price beyond what it is worth.

The latest purchase (Still renno ongoing) was refused early access because the lady moved into a nursing home with Alzimers and the Son was selling the property on her behalf and there was a Govt agency involved. The Govt agency flatly refused for early access so I had to wait till settlement.