No deposit collected for the sale of my home

[DaveM]

I'm a bit confused regarding suing the conveyancer. Which conveyancer, the vendors or the purchasers? How can the conveyancer possibly know that the purchaser had no intention of paying the deposit? Correct me if I'm wrong, the deposit money is paid directly to the REA by the purchaser not via the conveyancer.

Vendors conveyancer allowed the contract to go unconditional without payment of deposit. The contract should have been nullified when it was not paid and not allowed to drag onto many months of stuffing around.

Sounds like the conveyancer was just focused on getting their services fee than protecting the vendors interest.

 

[Scott No Mates]

Did the agent not 'qualify' the buyers?

 

[sanj]

I feel for the OP but ultimately he/she is not taking any responsibility here. Why was nothing done in the meantime? Why was the contract not cancelled when deposit did not arrive on time?

Also, OP seems to be banned which is a bit odd, did i miss something?

 

[Peter_Tersteeg]

Did the agent not 'qualify' the buyers?

How could an agent be reasonably expected to qualify a buyer? They don't see the buyers payslips or bank statements. Statistically few people actually get a written pre-approval prior to purchasing and I advise those who do get one not to show it to an agent as it compromises their negotiating power.

I feel for the OP but ultimately he/she is not taking any responsibility here. Why was nothing done in the meantime? Why was the contract not cancelled when deposit did not arrive on time?

Also, OP seems to be banned which is a bit odd, did i miss something?

I kind of agree with the sentiment of the OP needs to take some responsibility. It's dangerous to assume a sale has gone through and make financial commitments around that until you do have at least a deposit in your hands. It's also human nature to plan ahead and in essence, spend the money before it's yours. I'm still gob-smacked that someone would actually do this. There's not financial gain in it for the fraudsters, they must be truly awful people.

The title 'banned' is changeable in the user settings of the forum. I don't think it has anything to do with the forum imposing a status on anyone. I believe you can change it to anything you like.

 

[Scott No Mates]

Without putting the buyer over the coals, the agent generally extracts some information about the purchaser in their banter with them at the property/during negotiations/subsequent meetings & discussions. Ie Hi Ms Jones, nice to make your acquaintance....this is a quaint 2 bedder with a new kitchen.....What line of work are you in?/so what do you do? Oh that's interesting, how do you do that?...Are you based in the city? Are you a local?. Oh, you're an out of area buyer. Well, there is a city bus just around the corner...What type of property are you looking for? Have you sold your current house?/When does it settle?/Have you listed it yet? What's your budget? Oh, there's not much in that price range at the moment but..... (You've heard all of these before and they are just as much about extracting information about the buyer as seeking an 'in' for selling their current dwelling and working out the buyer's timeline ie they have sold, awaiting settlement and need to move quickly/are cashed up and raring to go).

How often does a buyer stump up and put in an offer on the spot with no/little interaction with the agent?

 

[brahms]

Without putting the buyer over the coals, the agent generally extracts some information about the purchaser in their banter with them at the property/during negotiations/subsequent meetings & discussions. Ie Hi Ms Jones, nice to make your acquaintance....this is a quaint 2 bedder with a new kitchen.....What line of work are you in?/so what do you do? Oh that's interesting, how do you do that?...Are you based in the city? Are you a local?. Oh, you're an out of area buyer. Well, there is a city bus just around the corner...What type of property are you looking for? Have you sold your current house?/When does it settle?/Have you listed it yet? What's your budget? Oh, there's not much in that price range at the moment but..... (You've heard all of these before and they are just as much about extracting information about the buyer as seeking an 'in' for selling their current dwelling and working out the buyer's timeline ie they have sold, awaiting settlement and need to move quickly/are cashed up and raring to go).

How often does a buyer stump up and put in an offer on the spot with no/little interaction with the agent?

I'd reckon the agent would have asked a few of these, and most likely got very believable answers. All totally fabricated of course. Sounds like these 'buyers' are indeed quite unhinged and live in a world totally parallel to ours.

Very interesting situation all the same, contract should never have gone u/c of course, basic collapse of process there.

 

[fernfurn]

I think you should at least put their full names & addresses on this forum to save anyone else being scammed. As they have been on ACA there can be no legal action against you for doing this.

 

[Terry_w]

I think you should at least put their full names & addresses on this forum to save anyone else being scammed. As they have been on ACA there can be no legal action against you for doing this.

Are you sure?

 

[MRO]

I had the exact same thing happen to me. I went down the legal path but quickly realised they had nothing to lose and it was going to cost me thousands to achieve nothing.

It made me really angry for months afterwards but their is nothing you can do. Only time makes it easier.

Real estate agent is not to blame, they have no ability to check finances of prospects. They can only make inferences from what they are told and these people are usually quite good with their stories.

 

[Ausprop]

oh well time to move on. OP doesn't want to pursue buyers and everyone else seems too difficult to go after. Just sell it again, get a bigger deposit this time and get on with life

 

[fernfurn]

I thought if something was true you couldnt be sued for slander for saying it. Who's going to pay for these creeps' legal costs to sue if they have no money. There really should be some repercussions for their actions. Their names and photos should be circulated to all re agents.

 

[Terry_w]

I thought if something was true you couldnt be sued for slander for saying it. Who's going to pay for these creeps' legal costs to sue if they have no money. There really should be some repercussions for their actions. Their names and photos should be circulated to all re agents.

You can be sued for anything, whether true or not. Look at all the defamation cases out there. Truth may be one defense, but what if you get the name wrong - how do you even know the names on the contract are their correct and legal names? What if someone else has the same or similar name?