All Aboard!!

On the flip side, you could use the fact that finance is denied to cancel out of the deal and chase another property once you've got your black mark removed from your credit file. But, seek advice from your solicitor.

And to reiterate, this is probably the best option in my opinion. Dump this lemon and get a better property haha :)
 
Wow Compleks that’s quick, that’s really quick!!!! You certainly haven't wasted anytime. I remember reading your first thread back on the 01/10 and you were asking for guidance, then on the 15/10 you drove to Bendigo with a Real Estate Agent and by 17/10 you had purchased.

Can I just ask one question Compleks, is the agent who drove you around on 15/10 the same agent you purchased from 2 days later on the 17/10? If so, I hope they didn't push you into anything knowing you were inexperienced?
 
What a drainer.
I'm curious. I haven't lost any cards or identification, and it sounds as though they had my license number and everything. Someone surely went to a lot of effort. Mind you, I guess it's pretty easy these days to get personal information.

Maybe I'm just being stubborn, but I'm trying to extend the finance clause and push ahead. I know this is not what some of you would recommend, and I mean no disrespect in saying this, but I think this is the best course of action for me at this stage. I will find out in a week what the verdict is on my credit history.

is the agent who drove you around on 15/10 the same agent you purchased from 2 days later on the 17/10? If so, I hope they didn't push you into anything knowing you were inexperienced?
Same agent indeed.
He didn't pin me in a corner and demand my lunch money :)
He did his job, quite well I might add. He showed me houses that fit my budget and criteria and I wasn't pushed into anything or pressured to make a decision.

Unless of course he used subliminal messaging and jedi mind tricks o_O
 
VEDA can and will react quickly if you can show them its fraud.Keep on at them...........they are pretty good to sort these things out quickly.
 
Same agent indeed.
He didn't pin me in a corner and demand my lunch money :)
He did his job, quite well I might add. He showed me houses that fit my budget and criteria and I wasn't pushed into anything or pressured to make a decision.

Unless of course he used subliminal messaging and jedi mind tricks o_O

Fair enough Compleks, just that 1 day is not a lot of time to do your due diligence when you don't know the area. But hope it all works out for you!

My girlfriend had a similar problem with Veda and took about 2 weeks to have it removed, just keep at them.
 
I'm still alive, but slightly more jaded.

Was passed around between GE money and VEDA for about 10 days. Apparently the request to remove the default had been sent by one, but not received by the other.
Yada yada yada... got the all clear this morning. Moving ahead with finance, but running out of time on the extension clause. Will probably need another extension. But fingers crossed it all goes smoothly from here.

There appears to be a fairly large amount of incompetence out there, and I seem to be attracting my share of it. I still have some work cut out for me, but I'm looking forward to the process.

Will keep you posted.
 
I thought I'd weigh in with permission from Compleks to discuss what's happened from a finance perspective...

Essentially we submitted the loan application to the lender. My general opinion of the application was that it was very strong given a healthy income and asset position. I was very supprised when a few minutes after submission we received the electronic assessment notice that the loan had been declined.

Essentially the computer system that verifies applications when we send them had rejected the application based on it's "credit score". I followed up with the lender why this had occured (the application looked very strong to me), only to discover that Compleks had a substantial default to another financial institution on his credit report, which had only been placed there a fortnight before. In most situations this completely destroys the deal unless you're willing to pay much higher rates and fees.

Compleks followed up with the institution that had lodged the default and they indicated that a fraud may have been committed. That institution investigated further and my hat has to go off to Compleks, as this was likely a very frustraiting process. Eventually though it paid off, as he was informed that the default had been removed.

We asked the lender to re-run their credit decision, which we were informed this morning was successful!

At this point the finance is pretty much starting from day 1 in the process, having been resurected from the purgatory of declined applications. Again I'm very confident that it'll proceed smoothly from here and we'll have a full approval mid next week.

In a nutshell, people should protect their credit file. Be careful what information you give out to whom both physically and online. Shred discarded financial documents like old statements. It's also worth setting up an account with Veda ( credit file people www.mycreditfile.com.au ), so you're aware of any credit equiries being made, and you can get onto any fraudulent ones quickly.
 
Thanks for the update...
Out of interest, is there any recourse for Compleks if he/she gets charged penalty interest for a late settlement?
 
Thanks for the update...
Out of interest, is there any recourse for Compleks if he/she gets charged penalty interest for a late settlement?

I suppose that there might be a case against the lender who accepted a fraudulent application and subsiquently lodged the default, but it would be very difficult to prove negligence on their part. A late settlement in this case might cost less than $1,000. It would probably take legal action to get any substantial information (they'd probably hide behind the privacy act), so it would cost more than you'd recover.

That lender would also probably (correctly) point out that Compleks did have the opportunity to withdraw his offer on the property without penalty on the basis that the initial finance was declined. Both myself and the solicitor also gave advice to drop this purchase, deal with the problem then go back to the market later and dispite the happy outcome I'd still give the same advice in retrospect.

Any case would probably not be particuarly strong. Also consider that this party has suffered a loss. They've lost money to someone who commited the fraud.


The lender with whom we've been working has done everything correctly and in accordance to both their policies and what would be reasonable expectations. The banks aren't obligated to approve an application.


Our office has done everything right (as best I can determine) and within acceptable service levels. We could insist that every client present us with a credit report before we lodge an application, but given information that Compleks gave us in the application there was every reason to believe that his credit file would be squeeky clean. Also probably less than 1 in 200 people I see has a credit problem of this magnitute and Compleks is the first person in 8 years of trading where I've seen a default that actual is fraudulent.

Even if we had done this it probably wouldn't have prevented the problem as the default was lodged only a fortnight before the application. I first met with Compleks prior to that event, so a recent credit report probably might not have been recent enough. We don't conduct our own credit checks either as I've seen multiple applications where other brokers have done this and trashed otherwise accpetable credit files.


About the only party that could be held truely liable would be the person(s) who committed the fraud. They're already in breach of criminal law and certainly their actions have the potential to cause substantial harm to multiple parties. The problem is you've got to find out who they are first. No doubt the matter has been referred to the police, but with fraud being one of the most common crimes in our country, chances are they won't be caught for this particular crime.

Often fraud against financial institutions is seen as victumless. Clearly that's not the case. In one sence it's a good thing that the crime was detected and Compleks has had his name cleared, otherwise his investing carreer might be over before it got started.

Despite all this, I don't think settlement will occur late. There's still sufficient time to get everything done. This is a good example of why 30 day settlement look good on paper, but things out of anybodys control can go wrong.
 
This is a good example of why 30 day settlement look good on paper, but things out of anybodys control can go wrong.

I really dislike 28/30 day settlements for this very reason. These days with the processes that occur in large lending institutions, even a simple amendment can take a week to occur before a credit analyst looks at / approves a deal. 60 is much preferred.
 
Update!

I'm not sure where to begin. So I'll start by giving props where it's due, to Peter (PT_Bear).
I've basically made his life miserable for the last month, unintentionally might I add. But he went above and beyond and got me out of a very bad situation without making a cent.

I'll try and keep this short, although it could be a very long winded and painful story. I'll pick up where we left off last.
The default on my credit file had just been removed as the extended finance clause crept up. I was also expecting confirmation on the new finance application any day. Being largely of the attitude that 'everything will be fine', I let the finance clause slip by unchecked.
In hindsight, this was not my best decision.

The days went by and there was no word from the Bank Of Melbourne. In fact, I'm not sure if they ever got back to Peter in regards to the second finance application. Time was not on our side, so another application was filed, this time with AMP.
Again, a few days passed and this application was rejected because I have not been in my current job for more than 12 months. I guess that's a decent general rule, but had anyone looked into it they would have realised that my occupation is one of the most stable jobs out there. But anyway, onto another application.

The third application was with... I can't even remember. But a few more days passed and we were rejected again!
This time we were told that there were too many applications for credit on my credit file.I wasn't sure what they were talking about and thought maybe it was the previous applications with the banks for this home loan??
I ordered a copy of my credit file and it wasn't pretty...

The default in question earlier had been removed, however what I didn't realise is that whoever stole my details had made numerous applications with other finance organisations. I think there were 6 in total. Non of them showed up in my earlier checks because I only asked about defaults on my file...
Having dealt with the previous default, I knew this was not going to be a simple matter to clear up. I knew this was going to take time, which we didn't really have at this stage.

To cut a long story short. Peter suggested that my parents take out a loan and gift me the money. In the meantime I can get my file cleared up and re-apply for finance myself when it's all sorted. There really wasn't any alternative at this stage either, so we went ahead and did exactly that.



Soooo. Instead of getting 105% finance and maintaining my cash holdings in an offset and paying interest only over 30 years. I'm instead making repayments on a $225k, 15 year, P&I loan and funded the remainder of the purchase with most of my savings.
This will only be a temporary solution until my record is cleared, which is a brutally painful process might I add, then I'll be in a position to refinance and pay off my parents loan.

On the bright side, we managed to make the settlement deadline on the 17th (only just). I now own the property, which is currently rented for $300p/w which I'm very happy with.
I decided to use Michelle from Barry Plant as my Property Manager, and I have to say I'm very happy with that decision as well. I think I appointed her as the manager on a friday, she had organised an open for inspection by tuesday and the rental contract was signed by thursday. But beside acting incredibly fast the tenants come with good referrals and the service from Michelle has been excellent.

Apparently that was my short version of events! Sorry about that, but I said I would detail my journey on this one from start to finish, even with all my mistakes along the way. If someone can learn from this I'll be happy.
All in all this has been, well, it has been an experience. No point dwelling on my mistakes though, I'll learn from it and hopefully things go a little smoother next time.
At the end of the day we got it across the line and I'm happy to be finally doing something I've thought about for a long time now.

Now if you'll excuse me, I still have a credit report to clear...



PS: I now have a furious hatred for call centres, automated phone menus and being placed on hold.
 
Really good read compleks. You stuck to your guns and did wat you had to do to get it over the line, when the easy way out would have been to pull out after all those rejections. You solved a problem, which Is a good skill to have in the investing game. Looking forward to reading how IP no.2 pans out :)
 
Cheers Robbo.

It has been an interesting experience to say the least.
I just found out my impostor has left me a nice little bill for $800 with Telstra as well.
The cops aren't interested in hearing about it, because apparently the fraud investigators will pass the information onto them. Despite the fact that Telstra has appointed 2 separate case managers, neither of which have bothered to call me back. Now I'm told that I have to front up in person to my nearest store, like that's going to make any difference...

Apparently the guy had to have my name, licence number and bank statements. Non of which would be particularly difficult to find/fake. Except for the license number I guess.
Some pubs/clubs scan your license these days, so I guess the information could be pinched that way. I also got my heavy rigid license at the beginning of the year, and for some reason I seem to recall the company taking my old license rather than just punching a hole in it and returning it.

Anyway, that's all irrelevant. I just have to clear it up and re-finance as soon as I can so the loan is in my name and on my terms.

Off to Telstra!
 
Wouldn't be difficult to fake the statements I meant.

In the off chance this happens to anyone else. Trying to resolve this over the phone is almost impossible.
I just got back from the Telstra shop, and they were actually fantastic. They say this is happening more and more and knew exactly what to do.

So fingers crossed that I can tick Telstra off the list next.
(the outstanding account balance was actually $2,800. Not a bad effort on his behalf, but if he waited a few more months he could have had himself an iPhone 5 instead of 4.)

2 down. 3 to go.
 
Yikes. Not the most pleasant introduction to property. I admire you for taking it so well and not throwing in the towel.

Good luck with Telstra!
 
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