Agents mis-selling

[Crap]

Hi all,

My family got into trouble and seriously need some advice and guidance.

They recently signed an agreement to purchase a vacant land with a big land vendor, but they then found our that the soil condition in the region is very complicated and the construction cost for building a house will be excess their budget and affordability, thus they decide to terminated the contract. The agents of the vendor concealed the important fact of soil condition in the region and my family didn't get chance to even look at or test the soil before signing of the contract as it was still not available. My family is from overseas and solely relied on the information provided by the agents. Under this situation, is it possible to sue the agents over their mis-selling and caused the lost of deposit (and other cost)?
Will appreciate any advices. Thanks in advance,

Crap

 

[Paul@PFI]

I would discuss with a solicitor. Cooling off may be ticking away.

 

[Chris B]

Sorry to hear about your families situation.

I'm no lawyer and am not familiar with the NSW legal system but generally it is the buyer's responsibility to do their own due diligence and I don't think you'll have any legal grounds unless the agent has actually lied about the soil and you have evidence of it, i.e. if they gave you a phony soil test report, etc.

If there is anyway you can legally create some bad publicity for the vendor/agent, maybe you can persuade them to refund the deposit in order to shut you up.

 

[JDM]

The "caveat emptor" provision applies in this situation. It is buyer beware and the buyer's responsibility to conduct appropriate due diligence.

The main situation where there might be some recourse is if the agent was asked about the soil type and their reply (or lack of) was misleading. In the absence of this and based on the limited information provided, you will unlikely have further recourse.

The above is general only and I would speak to your solicitor to get their informed opinion based on the actual facts.

 

[Deltaberry]

Still within cooling off period?

 

[TMNT]

the only suggestion I have is to try and utilise the cooling off ASAP,

as for hiding the soil conditions, if the agent did do that, thats not very good, but thats what due diligence is for!!!!

its completely your responsibility

 

[property_girl]

Agree with everything above. If a case can be made that your parents were pushed or pressured into signing the contract, then they may be able to get out of it. Call your local consumer affairs office or your local member. You can even give the ACCC a call. Have you spoken to the seller? Do it all quickly, as time is of the essence. I believe that consumers should be protected from this kind of behaviour.

 

[sanj]

Call a lawyer immediately and get an informed decision from someone who can look over the sale contracts etc. Terry who posts here comes highly recommended from people who have used him amd is also sydney based

Time is of the essence so do it immediately

 

[Crap]

Thank you so much for all the advices. I have taken your advices and contacted lawyer to get legal opinion.

We have a couple of serious discussion the last few days (sorry for being absent as it was approaching settlement date) and decided to terminate the contract. With the help of our lawyer, we have managed to negotiate limiting our loss and liability to just the 10% deposit. Though I feel bad for losing the deposit, we do at fault for not doing due diligence. As I have mentioned before, we are from overseas and not familiar with the local rules and law, we "assumed" Australia works in the same way as where we are from, we didn't realise the agent only have the duties to look after the seller, which is very difference from our country. We have mistrusted the agents and it is a lesson learn.

Thank you again for all the help. I am impressed that members here are so friendly and helpful and so generously share their rich knowledge of property investment. I hope, with time, when I am more experienced in property investment, I can contribute back to the forum by helping others and sharing my knowledge.

Thanks
Crap

 

[marty998]

I don't have anything constructive to add to this thread but when I click on the OP's name it gives me the following menu:

View public profile
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Find all posts by Crap
Add Crap to your contacts (my favourite, not so good if you are wearing lenses lol)
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[Redwood]

Hi all,

My family got into trouble and seriously need some advice and guidance.

They recently signed an agreement to purchase a vacant land with a big land vendor, but they then found our that the soil condition in the region is very complicated and the construction cost for building a house will be excess their budget and affordability, thus they decide to terminated the contract. The agents of the vendor concealed the important fact of soil condition in the region and my family didn't get chance to even look at or test the soil before signing of the contract as it was still not available. My family is from overseas and solely relied on the information provided by the agents. Under this situation, is it possible to sue the agents over their mis-selling and caused the lost of deposit (and other cost)?
Will appreciate any advices. Thanks in advance,

Crap

Hi there, how did you go?

Never believe an agent - learn that for the future. But, call Terry, he will help you.

Cheers, Ivan

 

[fernfurn]

a very interesting fact I found out the other day, if you ask an agent "is there anything else I should know about this property?" they are legally bound to tell you anything they know. On the other hand, if you know something about your property you are trying to sell which you dont want buyers to know, don't tell the agent.

 

[Crap]

Hi Ivan, Fernfurn,
Sorry for taking time to reply, i didn't know this thread has updated. Shouldn't the forum send email/alert/something to inform users there is an update

About the land in Melbourne, we have successfully negotiated (via our lawyer) with the seller to give up recourse, in return, we gave up 10% deposit. An expensive lesson You are right, Ivan, "Never believe an agent ". Now I pay extra attention in checking and verifying all the detail agents provided and conducting due diligence. Have just identified a doggy agent in the last weekend inspection. Don't want to deal with him, but I do like the property... so my strategy now is ask lots of questions, and, use email, to make sure there is a record and the agent can't get away from the responsibility of his misleading/misrepresentation.

Didn't know that we can ask "is there anything else I should know about this property?" to have agents to tell you anything they know and take responsibility for it I will definitely adopt it. Thanks for sharing Fernfurn

 

[Truly Exotic]

sorry, but I keep on seeing this thread as "Crap agents misselling"

your username is so cool!

 

[Damon]

Hi Crap ,

I feel for you and the anxiety caused you by the lack of education about land and building in Australia.

Do you mind me asking how much was the extra cost of building on that piece of land ?

I have sold much land and have seen all of the scenarios. Big developers don't do soil reports for each and every block. The ones that deliver you a level 1 compaction will generally be more expensive land. Many people try to save money by buying cheaper land but the implications for building can be more expensive. A lack of education and knowledge will catch you out every time.

Most people value the house and it's decorations over it's integrity and soundness of construction and so run out of budget to decorate. Builders are terrible in that they only quote you your site costs right at the end as they are competing for a part of the clients dream home attitude.

I find that new Australians see their home purchase as their final purchase whereas many established Australians work their way up to their dream home by making compromise purchases on the way there. I recently dealt with a client/friend who would not build a home under 32 squares and therefore cancelled the whole project. He could afford 30.5 squares as each square costs approx $8000. On questioning him he was unable to identify how big a square was or how many squares he was presently renting.

I have seen many new Australians cancel their purchase only to come back in to the market one or two years later only to find that their land price has gone up by 10-30K.

Don"t be put off by your experience as prices have begun creeping up again and the titled land supplies have virtually run out again in my area. Severe lack of supply is pushing prices up in all of the capital cities presently , good luck.

 

[Big Will]

a very interesting fact I found out the other day, if you ask an agent "is there anything else I should know about this property?" they are legally bound to tell you anything they know. On the other hand, if you know something about your property you are trying to sell which you dont want buyers to know, don't tell the agent.

This is not correct, anything else you should know about the property is up to the interpretation of the agent of what you might want to know. It is like asking how long is a piece of string. Otherwise the agent would have to start a huge story like;

'The sun rises in the east which is over in this direction (as it is something you might want to know about the property. Bin night is Tuesday night for Wednesday morning collection. The post man comes at about 3:00 in the afternoon. etc etc'

Do you need to know this information to purchase a property? No is it of interest, I would find it interesting but will find out if I did purchase anyway.

If someone was murdered here in the last x years (as someone may had died on the lad 150 years ago when it was bush so does that count?) and the agent says no and you can prove he had knowledge of it then yes it would be misleading. However if he says no and you cannot prove it then good luck.

 

[The Y-man]

i didn't know this thread has updated. Shouldn't the forum send email/alert/something to inform users there is an update

You can subscribe to the thread or do what I do and occasionally (as self servicg as it sounds) do a search on your own nic - although now that I think about it, it might just bring up a whole load of crap.....

The Y-man