I have a few IPs across different states but this is the first time an IP in Queensland has given me massive headache pre and post settlement. From my experience,
1.
Ensure that you do a pre-settlement check before your lender/conveyancer hands over the rest of the loot on settlement day. If you can't do it yourself (interstate), hire someone to do it.
e.g. In the contract, you are entitled to a reasonably clean and tidy house.
if the house is in an unacceptable messy or dirty condition, the 'inspector' can report back to you and you can then instruct your conveyancer to hold back 2k till the mess is rectified.
I asked my building inspector to check the house on settlement day. The owner's daughter lived there. It was very messy, plastic bags everywhere, another hole punched in the wall
A massive desk left in the hallway of the upstairs bedrooms, lots of junk underneath the house (paint cans, prams, children's motor car, umbrellas etc). Broken fish tank laid lovingly on the mini-shed right beside the house. Gigantic gargoyle statues left behind. But I didn't mind the small angel statue left behind
On settlement day, the selling agent apologised for the mess and said he had been trying to reach the owner and the daughter to clean the mess. He then said that he managed to reach the owner, owner was disappointed that daughter left such a mess behind and the owner was coming back from Toowoomba a week later on Sat to clean the house up, remove desk etc.
BEWARE this is a delay tactic by the agent!!! So that settlement day goes through smoothly.
Being people of good faith we trusted the agent and owner's so-called promise to come back and fix the place up. So we did not hold back any money on settlement day. A week went by, surprise, surprise, NO OWNER TURNS UP!!!
2. Instruct the selling agent to tell the owner NOT TO disconnect the electricity but TRANSFER the electricity account to your names/s.
For 3 weeks, we had fun and games with Energex (electricity supplier), Lumo (electricity agent) and Direct Connect (broker). Can someone tell me why there are 3 layers to deal with to connect electricity in Queensland?
You cannot deal with Energex directly to re-connect electricity to your house. You have to make a request to Direct Connect who makes the request to Lumo (call centre in India) who makes the request to Energex.
Energex inspectors will not enter a house to re-connect electricity if there is something left in the house. In our case, a desk in the hallway. Otherwise, if something/s is left in the house, someone has to accompany them so that offending article may be moved aside from Energy inspector's path.
Fun and games to get a single desk removed from the house. In the end, we paid $70 to get someone to remove the desk after broken promise from selling agent he was going to get his trailer to move it.
Finally an inspector from Energex turns up at the IP, only to leave WITHOUT connecting the power because he reports that it is unsafe. Needs a Form 2 from electrician that identified safety issues have been rectified. Unsafe issues were:
1. Electricity meter box is not closed properly, live wire
may be exposed
2. A power point in the kitchen was not fixed to the wall properly : unsafe
Paid $245 to an electrician to change some fuses so that he could close up the electricity box and fix loose power points in house.
Electrician uploads Form 2 to Energex. Energex says Form 2 never received. Tell us to contact Lumo. Lumo tells us IT system down whole day, not reflecting Form 2. Energex tells us Lumo needs to send them a form B2B in order to re-send an inspector down to reconnect power
Lots of calls to Lumo Indian call centre. Hubby is hoarse. Indian gentlemen says that his 'Director will personally take care of this and send the form B2B to Energex.'
Our electrician has some contacts in Energex. He insists that Energex has received the Form 2 he issued.
The Energex God finally comes and is personally escorted by our renovater who has been sitting around for days in the house doing what he can without power.
Our Renovater call us on the phone and reports triumphantly 'WE HAVE POWER!' He's 72, pretty laconic but he was excited as a kid!
Hope people can take something away from our experience.
