Contact your strata manager – they will advise what is covered on the policy and what the exclusions are. If necessary, they will provide a copy of the policy so that you can get your insurers to cover the excusions.

Contents insurance is for the owners contents – you may need to check with your insurer whether it is contents or buildings which covers your fixtures & finishes.

House and contents – covers the internal fittings,fixtures & fitout ie paint, kitchen, carpet, bathroom/laundry, robes etc

Nenal, it would come pretty close to being neutral – ie Purchase = $105+6k costs, Loan = $81k: approx $7k interest, Body Corp $3k (council $????) vs rent $9k. Loss would be about $20pw, less with a really good interest rate or a little more capital.

Depends upon how you want to use the information – if wages are salary-sacrificed for a novated lease (fully maintained vehicle), then you can show that you have no car running costs or alternatively you can show gross income and the amount tied in to the novated lease. Either way, the cost of running your car is counted as either part of…[Read more]

Tony, there is no sure way of knowing whether the agent has passed on an offer to the vendor unless you are present with the agent when they call them. If you can, always make your offer in writing and subject to a sunset clause.The amount of the deposit doesn't mean much – whether it is 1, 5, 10 or 20%, that is the amount of pain that you want to…[Read more]

Torrens Titled subdivision gives you unfettered rights regards to the property ie no one else has a say about what you can do (except for anyone benefitting from an easement). Strata subdivision allows the subdivision of stratum (vertically as well as horizontally on a block) this also creates shared rights by way of common property. Strata is the…[Read more]

A building inspector is like insurance, if you don't pay for it you are exposed to a risk of loss – how much is up to yourself. For peace of mine, I'd engage one as the expert, and again just before the expiry of the defects period to make sure that anything which has or may have failed gets repaired.

TM, garages/carports aren't included in the floor area of the building under the HSC DCP. ie 40% doesn't include your covered parking area.DA – development application.

KIZ the only downside with that proposal is that both the final purchaser and JNM will be hit with stamp duty etc on the purchase. It would be better for JNM to take an 'option' to purchase the premises at the agreed price of $600k paying a small non-refundable fee then to onsell the 'option' to the end user/purchaser at the price which they are p…[Read more]

Very much so. The DA I reviewed (knocked back a few times) is now 39.3% excluding garages. BTW the DA cost in excess of $30k!!!! for a single house. (Including design/town planning/redesigns & council fees). It will cost at least another $15-20k to get those plans through to construction certificate before it can be built.

Prepare for a long and drawn out da process with HSC (possibly up to 2 years). Their requirements are quite stringent with regards to the information required to be provided.I have recently reviewed the documentation for a da for a single house on a sloping site in HSC zoned 2a environmentally sensitive (adjacent to a bushland reserve) – site…[Read more]

The vendors can probably sue for specific performance ie you are stuck with it unless there is a major defect eg you have been declared insane. I doubt that the vendor will be too interested in anything less than complete restitution (I know I wouldn't be too happy, especially if I had banked on the sale for my new place)

Resealing concrete tiles is totally unnecessary and purely cosmetic – ie the best form of maintenance is repointing of your cappings, replacement of the valleys and guttering, the rest is unnecessary.Sure, the tiles will look new – however the acrylic paint used bonds the lip of the tile to the next tile as well as fading over time. The paint…[Read more]

Your LOC seems incredibly expensive, any chance of changing financier and repackaging the LOC to a lower rate?Is your LOC currently partially/fully drawn? Can you utilise this as your deposit or go thru the motions of a deposit bond (however the settlement period isn't really long enough to justify its use)?

The number of electric shocks experienced by sparkies is minimal (probably only a few more than anyone else working around the home) – sparkies have a greater awareness from a safety aspect, know what to avoid and the procedures to take to ensure a safe workplace. That said, it is generally the apprentice who gets stung through inexperience. Work…[Read more]

If you haven't signed the agency agreement – DON'T! Hold it over the agency's head to get them to drop their management fees to compensate the loss of rent and to provide satisfactory proof that the rent achieved is market  rather than the agreed rent (ie do they have proof of advertising the property at the required rent & offers recieved below…[Read more]

Even a standard contract for sale of a property or a residential lease is longer than 4 or 5 pages hitambakar. Both parties will most likely need independent legal advice ie you both shouldn't use the same solicitor's office.

Off the plan purchases occasionally qualify for stamp duty concession (not exemption). Check out the OSR site to see what applies or speak to your conveyancer.

See the bank for what deal they can do for you ie at what price are they willing to buy back the fixed 7% loan? ie how much will the bank pay you to close a cheap loan?