Advice appreciated - solicitor not on board and pest/building due tomorrow (Saturday)

[Debt Junkie]

Hello all.

I would greatly appreciate any advice that can be given for the following situation.

Six days ago, (Saturday) a friend signed a contract to purchase a property in Brisbane.

Her choice of solicitor was based on advice from the Real Estate agent. The REA has advised that she has passed the contract to the solicitor, however my friend has not had any contact with the solicitor.

Today, she received her pest and building reports, both of which advise that the property needs urgent work which will be costly and her budget is already tight.

By tomorrow, she must have advised the REA of the outcome of the inspections and how she would like to proceed. Ideally, I would suggest she talk to her solicitor for some legal advice on how to approach this, however, as tomorrow is Saturday, this may not be possible - she does not know the hours of operation of the firm.

She wants to go ahead with the purchase, but would like to renegotiate the sale amount.

I have no legal background. I've never had this experience in my past property purchases, but then I always took a far more active role in the purchase process.

I believe she must contact the REA in writing tomorrow, but am not sure of what content to include or how it should be phrased. I understand that if she does not communicate with the REA tomorrow, they assume pest and building were satisfactory (the contract stipulated seven days).

She will also be making an effort to contact her solicitors.

Any direction or assistance would be fantastic.

 

[rugrat]

DISCLAIMER: THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE IN ANY WAY, SHAPE OR FORM - just a little personal opinion.

Firstly she really should have mad more effort to get in touch with her conveyencer prior to this - and i hope she did manage to contact them yesterday.

She will have to give written notice of her intentions to the other party (this should be through their solicitor / conveyencer in most cases NOT the REA. If she wants to renegotiate, she will most likely have to withdraw from this contract and start the negotiation process again.

 

[Debt Junkie]

Cheers rugrat, and thanks for the response.

I agree, and have been encouraging her to contact the solicitor directly all week (among other things). I've decided it has to be self-sabotage (there are several other things going on that make no sense, including making no effort to obtain the first home buyers grant and associated reduced stamp duty ... I mean, seriously! We're talking $20K+ ...).

I have also advised her to contact the real estate in writing and at the least, seek an extension on the building and pest results. Fortunately today she has managed to do one thing right and has spoken with the building inspector who has advised that she not purchase the property.

So she's pulling out of the sale and will be advising the real estate over the phone of this. Again, I think that should be done in writing, but I can't seem to convince her of that.

So, crisis over - at least as far as it relates to this house ...

 

[wylie]

So she's pulling out of the sale and will be advising the real estate over the phone of this. Again, I think that should be done in writing, but I can't seem to convince her of that.

She should definitely be doing this in writing. If she chooses to simply phone the agent, even after your advice to do this in writing, then she really may find herself in a very bad situation.

 

[Perp]

So she's pulling out of the sale and will be advising the real estate over the phone of this. Again, I think that should be done in writing, but I can't seem to convince her of that.

So, crisis over - at least as far as it relates to this house ...

I should think the crisis has just begun, if she didn't advise them in writing. At the very least she'll lose her deposit if she doesn't settle. She sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.

 

[cu@thetop]

Hello all.


Her choice of solicitor was based on advice from the Real Estate agent. The REA has advised that she has passed the contract to the solicitor, however my friend has not had any contact with the solicitor.

.

Doesn't Neil Jenman refer to this as stitched?

Your friend may have legal problems with this. By now they may have lost their right to terminate (needs to be in writing). Solicitor sounds like a slack ars* but then again the agent may have been sitting on the contract letting the clock wind down on the escape clauses.

Might be able to sue the solicitor if you suffer any loss however.........

 

[Spectre]

Doesn't Neil Jenman refer to this as stitched?

Your friend may have legal problems with this. By now they may have lost their right to terminate (needs to be in writing). Solicitor sounds like a slack ars* but then again the agent may have been sitting on the contract letting the clock wind down on the escape clauses.

Might be able to sue the solicitor if you suffer any loss however.........

We had that with a REA in sunnybank. Thank you mr.....

Took 2 weeks to get the contract to the solicitor so we just kept extending. I rang the other sides solicitor and told them what was going on so all parties were in the loop.