What???, We still have to pay close to two thousand dollars? Oh no! Thanks for your response.
We want to get rid of the land tax.
So, anyway, if the other part owner agrees about the change of name, and we want to change it to one owner only, is it recommended to use a solicitor to change the name of ownership? Is there a "do it yourself" "change of ownership form somewhere?
Yes, I am desperate to get rid of the land tax, all of it, not just half, as when only one owner moves in, things start to change. No longer does the land tax come out of the rental income as there is no more rental income, because you are living in the home. It comes out of your own savings/wages. I remember before we had tenants in the home, a long time ago my sister saying that she will not pay land tax out of her own savings/wages and told me to find another solution. So we rented the home out. For us, it will have to be "no rental income, no land tax" choice or "rental income with land tax", nothing in between. I'll have to think about what we are going to do very carefully.
I suggest anyone getting a property, be careful, don't get it in 2 names as you will regret it as our family has. We weren't sure about the 50% exemption, but we sort of guessed that would be what they would do. Actually I wouldn't consider the 50% exemption situation, because with no rental income the part owner isn't going to agree to that and I can see why.
My mother has told me that she paid $700 18 years ago to get the name changed to 2 owners (unfortunately). The price is not so bad. At least you only have to pay once. With land tax you have to pay every year. Hopefully the price hasn't changed greatly from that amount. Changing back to one owner which I am going to do would be a better situation.
I think she is correct. It looks to getting to that stage as I have noticed homes have again increased by $200,000 in south sydney. Not a good sign for the land tax payer as the land valuers office take that into account and increase land values accordingly (and the increases tend not to be small either). Hopefully this doesn't happen this year.
