Shocked - literally shocked. Stunned might be a better word.
Quietly sitting at home this morning monitoring my property-web of affairs. All systems go, all 8 leg monitors at full stretch poised for the slightest twitch, felt nothing untoward, no foul weather on the horizon, all looking calm and good....just the way we like it.
Tinkle - tinkle....what's that ?? Activity in the south-east quadrant. Hey hey hey, what little ripple do I detect ??
Inconspicuous little email forwarded from our Sydney CBD Tenant, requesting us to urgently pay a small water bill so as to avoid having the water disconnected ?? Say wha' ??
The deal is we pay the outgoing bills as they arrive, and we recover everything from them via 1/12th of the total bill every month. Coolo....up until now. (Note : In the back of my mind, felt it slightly strange that we haven't had a bill for anything since we settled in February....it's only been 8 months....maybe they all just forgot.....).
Call up the Sydney Water authority and let them know that I'll pay the small outstanding bill via BPay immediately.....but just curious to know why we haven't received any rates, or water bills, or anything for matter since Feb. I'm finding it strange to have this disconnection notice in the name of the former Vendor....probably why it wasn't paid....
Lovely helpful gentlemen offers to put me on hold to check the name of the account. After 3 minutes of serenading with Rachmaninov's 17th movement in E minor, he comes back to inform me that "No sir, the name on the account is correct, that name is the registered proprietor of the property, all is well."
Cyclone category 5 just blew in, no more little tinkle tinkle....I've been blown clean off my web and down the spout without a trace.
WTF !!
"Thank you my good man, you've been most helpful. Ta ta for now."
Re-gather thoughts, compose myself, what the hell is going on ??
Wife comes in and asks if everything is alright.....ummm....no it's not !!
Immediately pull up the final email from the supervising solicitor in Sydney back in February congratulating us on the settlement of the property. Details blah blah bah about when the council rates have been paid up to, when the water rates, land tax and strata fees have been paid up to....too easy.
Start writing an email to the solicitor, essentially saying "Sorry to inconvenience you ol' chap, but could you just confirm that indeed settlement did go through and we are in fact the Owner ??"
This was the reply...
---------
Put simply, we have done our job properly - the one that has not is obviously your mortgagee. It has the title deed, transfer (and its mortgage) and seems not to have registered them.
As soon as the Transfer is registered, the Notice of Sale we handed to the bank on settlement is activated and LPMA (Titles Office) notifies all relevant authorities, including Council, Sydney Water and the Land Tax Office, of the change in ownership.
You should follow up your mortgagee to find out why it has not lodged the documents (including the Transfer and it mortgage) for registration, have it do so immediately and claim from it any interest for late payment of rates that you incur due to its negligence and tardiness.
--------------------
Excellent !! We don't own the property !! Just a smallish detail....
Immediately write a fairly terse email to the head knob Banker in charge of the loan....had to go fairly easy as he is the one herding through the finance for our next upcoming loan deal...tricky stuff....otherwise his rear anatomy would have looked something akin to swiss cheese.
As usual, no written reply from the Bank, but an apologetic phone call saying he cannot understand how that could possibly be, but he has checked and in fact nothing was done at settlement, they have the title deeds, the unregistered Transfer of Land and the unregistered mortgage languishing somewhere in their files and he has the full team - late on a Friday night - scouring through to find them all....
He said it was doubly curious cos he checked that we had paid the fees to have it done - yep, had checked with his assistant after settlement and she said everything was tickety boo, and their internal audit team went thru our file like a dose of salts as we were a new customer to the Bank about 2 months ago and everything checked out fine.
I said well you can sack your assistant and also sack your auditors - cos they are worse than hopeless.
I'm left here dangling out on a limb with not a jot to my name, no property, and some vague corporate entity on the title deed of 'our' property who has taken off with our bank cheques.
Meanwhile, the Bank has nothing either. No registered mortgage and no leverage against us. I told him you can forget sending us this month's mortgage bill, I ain't paying cos I don't own anything and have no debt with you. His only reply was a silent gulp.
Thankfully the Tenant knows nothing of this, as all of the negotiating work I have secured over the last few months pulling them into line would be undone if they ever caught wind that I am not the official Landlord.
Well.....you think you've seen most things.....but this thing today has blown me away. Over 5 million bucks down the Swanee and not a cracker to show for it. Someone's head has to roll over this - surely to God. It might all be rectified on Monday morning, but right now I'm up about 7 creeks without a toothpick for a paddle.
Lessons learnt ?? Where do I start ??
1. No matter what happens, when you buy property, everything always falls back into your lap. It might sit there festering for months on end, but eventually all drains lead back to the main sewer...and that's where the Landlord is.
2. Check, double check and triple check. Don't believe your Banker. especially don't believe a word your solicitor says or writes.
3. Two or three weeks after settlement (not 8 months in our case) double check to see at the Land Titles office that your name or your company is officially listed, otherwise you ain't got diddly squat.
4. Due to the shenanigans in the NSW system, especially harsh Vendors writing unbelievably unfair contracts of sale in the market we operate in, we have avoided it like the plague. This experience has probably sealed our fate and we'll never purchase in NSW again.
5. Due to the NSW history, we took the advice of solicitors and registered a caveat on the title as soon as we had a caveatable interest, i.e. as soon as we exchanged. That, it turns out, is the only legal leg we have to stand on this weekend. The Vendor, who still owns it, wouldn't be able to sell it from under us without removing that. I foolishly suggested to the solicitor a week after settlement that now we own the property, it would seem OK to remove the caveat. He suggested we don't, as it doesn't hurt to have it on the title if you own it. I didn't double check that word IF.
I'm still a little in shock to tell you the truth. Not happy at all. Let's see what next week brings....hopefully we might get to own it soonish.
Am I the only plonker in Australia who assumes he owns a property and finds out 8 months later he doesn't own jack squat ??
Quietly sitting at home this morning monitoring my property-web of affairs. All systems go, all 8 leg monitors at full stretch poised for the slightest twitch, felt nothing untoward, no foul weather on the horizon, all looking calm and good....just the way we like it.
Tinkle - tinkle....what's that ?? Activity in the south-east quadrant. Hey hey hey, what little ripple do I detect ??
Inconspicuous little email forwarded from our Sydney CBD Tenant, requesting us to urgently pay a small water bill so as to avoid having the water disconnected ?? Say wha' ??
The deal is we pay the outgoing bills as they arrive, and we recover everything from them via 1/12th of the total bill every month. Coolo....up until now. (Note : In the back of my mind, felt it slightly strange that we haven't had a bill for anything since we settled in February....it's only been 8 months....maybe they all just forgot.....).
Call up the Sydney Water authority and let them know that I'll pay the small outstanding bill via BPay immediately.....but just curious to know why we haven't received any rates, or water bills, or anything for matter since Feb. I'm finding it strange to have this disconnection notice in the name of the former Vendor....probably why it wasn't paid....
Lovely helpful gentlemen offers to put me on hold to check the name of the account. After 3 minutes of serenading with Rachmaninov's 17th movement in E minor, he comes back to inform me that "No sir, the name on the account is correct, that name is the registered proprietor of the property, all is well."
Cyclone category 5 just blew in, no more little tinkle tinkle....I've been blown clean off my web and down the spout without a trace.
WTF !!
"Thank you my good man, you've been most helpful. Ta ta for now."
Re-gather thoughts, compose myself, what the hell is going on ??
Wife comes in and asks if everything is alright.....ummm....no it's not !!
Immediately pull up the final email from the supervising solicitor in Sydney back in February congratulating us on the settlement of the property. Details blah blah bah about when the council rates have been paid up to, when the water rates, land tax and strata fees have been paid up to....too easy.
Start writing an email to the solicitor, essentially saying "Sorry to inconvenience you ol' chap, but could you just confirm that indeed settlement did go through and we are in fact the Owner ??"
This was the reply...
---------
Put simply, we have done our job properly - the one that has not is obviously your mortgagee. It has the title deed, transfer (and its mortgage) and seems not to have registered them.
As soon as the Transfer is registered, the Notice of Sale we handed to the bank on settlement is activated and LPMA (Titles Office) notifies all relevant authorities, including Council, Sydney Water and the Land Tax Office, of the change in ownership.
You should follow up your mortgagee to find out why it has not lodged the documents (including the Transfer and it mortgage) for registration, have it do so immediately and claim from it any interest for late payment of rates that you incur due to its negligence and tardiness.
--------------------
Excellent !! We don't own the property !! Just a smallish detail....
Immediately write a fairly terse email to the head knob Banker in charge of the loan....had to go fairly easy as he is the one herding through the finance for our next upcoming loan deal...tricky stuff....otherwise his rear anatomy would have looked something akin to swiss cheese.
As usual, no written reply from the Bank, but an apologetic phone call saying he cannot understand how that could possibly be, but he has checked and in fact nothing was done at settlement, they have the title deeds, the unregistered Transfer of Land and the unregistered mortgage languishing somewhere in their files and he has the full team - late on a Friday night - scouring through to find them all....
He said it was doubly curious cos he checked that we had paid the fees to have it done - yep, had checked with his assistant after settlement and she said everything was tickety boo, and their internal audit team went thru our file like a dose of salts as we were a new customer to the Bank about 2 months ago and everything checked out fine.
I said well you can sack your assistant and also sack your auditors - cos they are worse than hopeless.
I'm left here dangling out on a limb with not a jot to my name, no property, and some vague corporate entity on the title deed of 'our' property who has taken off with our bank cheques.
Meanwhile, the Bank has nothing either. No registered mortgage and no leverage against us. I told him you can forget sending us this month's mortgage bill, I ain't paying cos I don't own anything and have no debt with you. His only reply was a silent gulp.
Thankfully the Tenant knows nothing of this, as all of the negotiating work I have secured over the last few months pulling them into line would be undone if they ever caught wind that I am not the official Landlord.
Well.....you think you've seen most things.....but this thing today has blown me away. Over 5 million bucks down the Swanee and not a cracker to show for it. Someone's head has to roll over this - surely to God. It might all be rectified on Monday morning, but right now I'm up about 7 creeks without a toothpick for a paddle.
Lessons learnt ?? Where do I start ??
1. No matter what happens, when you buy property, everything always falls back into your lap. It might sit there festering for months on end, but eventually all drains lead back to the main sewer...and that's where the Landlord is.
2. Check, double check and triple check. Don't believe your Banker. especially don't believe a word your solicitor says or writes.
3. Two or three weeks after settlement (not 8 months in our case) double check to see at the Land Titles office that your name or your company is officially listed, otherwise you ain't got diddly squat.
4. Due to the shenanigans in the NSW system, especially harsh Vendors writing unbelievably unfair contracts of sale in the market we operate in, we have avoided it like the plague. This experience has probably sealed our fate and we'll never purchase in NSW again.
5. Due to the NSW history, we took the advice of solicitors and registered a caveat on the title as soon as we had a caveatable interest, i.e. as soon as we exchanged. That, it turns out, is the only legal leg we have to stand on this weekend. The Vendor, who still owns it, wouldn't be able to sell it from under us without removing that. I foolishly suggested to the solicitor a week after settlement that now we own the property, it would seem OK to remove the caveat. He suggested we don't, as it doesn't hurt to have it on the title if you own it. I didn't double check that word IF.
I'm still a little in shock to tell you the truth. Not happy at all. Let's see what next week brings....hopefully we might get to own it soonish.
Am I the only plonker in Australia who assumes he owns a property and finds out 8 months later he doesn't own jack squat ??