Lost Title Deeds

[Donna]

Hi All

Have a question. Purchased a unit with settlement of 6 weeks in contract. The conveyancing people rang yesterday to let me know the break down of the cheques they wanted and I politely ordered the bank cheques through my credit union. Settlement was suppose to go through today BUT the sellers were unable to locate the title deeds therefore delay in settlement. My conveyancing people rang me today to say may not go through until mid January. I said that would be okay but that I would want some sort of compensation for this delay.

In short I was told that I am not entiteled to any compensation as such in so far as settlement goes. While the Seller can get compensation if the buyer doesn’t fulfil there end of the deal this is not the case in reverse. Have been told I can
1. Pull out if I choose
2. Sue afterwards – told would be long process
3. Wear it

Would like to know what are some thoughts etc that you might have regarding this situation

For those that also read MSN forum then No I am not a hussy - I have posted this same question in the MSN forum so I get a good cross section of thougts from all

Cheers Donna

 

[july]

Hi Donna
Sorry to hear about your delay.
Settlement on my ip has been delayed (only one week so not a big deal) as well and I received the same advice as you from the conveyancers.
I have learnt that in future I will engage a solicitor before I purchase property and write conditions into the contract of sale regarding delayed settlement, among other things.
For this one, I have just treated it as a learning curve which is better preparing me for future purchases.

 

[geoffw]

Donna,

Does this cause you any loss or hardship? Will it cause any problems with respect to tenants (eg, a promised date to move in)?

If it does cause any problems, I'd be pushing to get that compensated.

I had a slightly delayed settlement early in the year. The property is positively geared, so it meant a slight loss of income- but not enough to worry me.

Another purchase was delayed slightly due to a problem with my bank. The bank offered to compensate for any penalties, but the vendor agreed to the delay without compensation (it was only a matter of a few days).

 

[foxysilvers]

Hi, sorry to hear of your problem.

Firstly, I only use my solicitor for all my conveyencing, even the most simple tranactions. He has a great back office team taking care of the day to day stuff while he writes and vetts my contracts.
My solicitor is expensive and I am happy to pay..........Why?.........because problems similar to yours are solved quicky or are found before they can happen.

I am in Victoria so cannot comment on the time element for replacing lost titles elsewhere but the last time it happened to me (2001) it took 6 weeks for the Vic. Titles Office to replace the missing title. Meanwhile my solicitor kept the other solicitors onside and the deal eventually settled.

Forget about compensation and try and determine if the vendors are trying to shaft you ( better buyer ?) or if the loss of title is genuine. If it is genuine and you still want to settle just go thru the process in the most efficient way and put the deal to bed.

Cheers

 

[XBenX]

haha donna, are you sure you arent a forum whore ?

unless you have a stipulation in the contract regarding penalties for delay of settlement then I think your advice is correct :/

If it is negatively geared then the extended settlement is a good thing for you anyhow.

Perhaps you can turn this into a positive, you could negotiate to get axs to the property and do some reno work in the period before you settle.

Otherwise you could always "convince" the vendors to hurry things up and find the title deeds or conpensate you for the delay.

Con' vince' verb any action to bring a person around to your way of thinking, usually carried out by large muscle bound men in suits. see also mafia, extortion, torture techniques

 

[Donna]

Thanks everyone for your replies. Made me think about the real issues. I figure it wa one of three
1 Karma - telling me to back away
2 I was being goofed around as the seller realised it was worth a lot more than I paid for it
3 It was a genuine event that they did loose the deeds and I should just bide my time

I have chose to bide my time and go through with the purchase. It sure helps when you have some other opinons help you think about things

Thanks Donna

 

[Aceyducey]

Hey Donna,

The trick here is to look what is in the contract.

It's quite common for the vendor to put in a clause that if the buyer is late to settle you pay interest for the delay to the seller....

We always make sure that we put the reverse clause in the contract as well (if the seller is late to settle they pay US interest).

If you don't make sure you include this clause, which has never been a problem for us to insert, then you may have few options for compensation.

In fact you may not even be able to withdraw from the contract without a penalty - IF you wanted to simply walk away (though the situation doesn't seem that bad to me, just slower).


To turn it in your favour, you could request full access to the property before settlement. This would allow you to do any renovation work you intended (if you are doing it yourself or can get tradies over Xmas) or show prospective tenants through so that when you settle it is already tenanted.

Note that the seller doesn't have to allow you to have access as you didn't include a clause for this in the contract (I assume), but try to encourage them to do this in good faith considering they delayed & it is Xmas

Cheers,

Aceyducey