We moved in to our new property on 5 April. A week later, council sent us a letter informing that an amount $1360 has not been paid yet to council for the rates from july 2011 to june 2012. I contacted my conveyancer and he initially said that he would deposit the money in my homeloan account and I could pay the council myself. I told him, no, you handle it as per settlement but he refused. Council asked me what date my conveyancer sent out the cheque. Conveyancer claimed he posted out the cheque on 5 April. I then called council again and they said they received the cheque on 26 april amounting to $1260 (as per the conveyancer's statement of adjustments for council rates). I told my conveyancer that the amount was wrong and he should resolve it, but he refused to continue the conversation or resolve this issue. Council advised me that these charges were due to the vendor not paying the rates since Feb 2012 and has since accrued and now it is $100 total in charges. Council has told me they have no choice, but the charges will rollover to the new owners of the property. I don't think its fair for us to pay these late overdue charges as we only moved in on 5 April. What should I do?
Overdue charges of rates from council
- Thread starter tommyjustme
- Start date
Write a letter to your conveyancer, saying that if they don't cough up $100 as it was their mistake, that you will be making a formal complaint to the Office of Fair Trading.
If no joy, then actually make the complaint to the OFT.
We're talking about $100 here right? I think you could be doing other things to make $100, personally. ........yes, I know it is the principle of the thing.
If no joy, then actually make the complaint to the OFT.
We're talking about $100 here right? I think you could be doing other things to make $100, personally. ........yes, I know it is the principle of the thing.
yeah its the principle of it all. This conveyancer has been very unprofessional from the start, I had to provide reminders to send me documents and follow up myself on certain things. We shouldn't be paying these overdue charges due to this conveyancer's negligence to check with council.
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