SA FHOG - Advice needed

Hi All,

Recently purchased a small farm, http://somersoft.com/forums/showthread.php?t=97785 , following the advice of the conveyancer I put in an application for the FHOG.

I received a letter from the commissioner this week stating that, "As you purchased the Property in a trustee capacity, you did not hold a relevant interest upon completion of the transaction within the meaning of Section 5 of the Act. As such the transaction does not represent a contract for the purchase of a home under section 13(2) of the Act and is therefore not an eligible transaction. It follows that section 7 (1)(b) of the Act is not satisfied and that no FHOG is payable"

Brief summary, Deed of trust signed just prior to the contract for purchase on the 27th of June. The deed stipulates that the land is held in trust until subdivision upon which I will receive the title in my own right. The deed was setup in such a way to make it clear that it was not two transactions as I didn't really want to pay two stamp duties.

Council approval has been given for subdivision and the surveyor will be completing their work this week coming.

The ongoing advise of the conveyancer is as follows;

"Your Contract, together with the Deed of Landownership (trust) was never going to meet the criteria of an eligible transaction for the FHOG, for the reasons set out in Revenue SA?s letter. Our hope was that Revenue SA would deem the subsequent division to form part of the eligible transaction together with the purchase contract, such that on completion of the division transaction you would hold a relevant interest in the land, and the FHOG would be payable at that time, rather than rejecting it now. It was always a long shot, unfortunately, and I doubt that the timing of the application would change the outcome.

Having said that, rather than appeal the decision, I would advise to submit a fresh FHOG application once the division has been completed and you do hold a ?relevant interest? in the land. Nothing that has been submitted to date prevents you from re-applying once your circumstances have changed. However, again, we will need Revenue SA to deem the purchase contract and division to be two parts of the same ?eligible transaction? to meet their date criteria ie deals entered prior to 30/6/2014. Unfortunately, it is entirely at the Commissioners discretion to interpret section 13 of the FHOG Act to be read this broadly, and unlikely given the narrow application they have shown rejecting your first application."

Any advice would be most welcome. I've 60 days to appeal the decision and I would suspect that by that time I'll have a clear title anyway. I know it's only 5k but with all the blowouts and unexpected costs I've had getting this through it would be a very welcome 5k.
 
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