Just having a trust doesn't help. If you own assets and get sued the assets are at risk. You need to get your trust to own these assets or take mortgages over the assets.

Maybe the loan was a no doc or a low doc originally? These had high exit fees, 2% from memory. Have a read of your loan agreement and see how the fees are structured. Usually they decrease as time goes on, so you may find if you wait a bit you will save a fortune on the variable part. Not much you can do about the fixed as you took a gamble.

very unlikely to find one.  Have you tried latrobe?

I looked into this in NSW a few years ago. Found out that owner builders permits are only issued to people building a home that is to be owner occupied and that you could only receive one permit every 5 years. You may have to do one and then get your spouse to do one and see how it goes.

Pos

The never sell theory is that properties go up in the long term, so why kill the goose that lays the golden egg?

If you go overseas you may still need to lodge a tax return – you may have income or a loss in Australia for example.

It is difficult to put a caveat over someones property. You will need an interest in the property and if you are just owed money then this is not enough. You will need to sue the individual who provided the guarantee. Once you get a judgment then you can get further court orders to seize property such as personal items and real property, guarnish wages and/or bank accounts etc.

You will need to talk to a lawyer asap. If the company has gone down it is likely that he may have provided personal guarantees and others will be after his assets too.

Lenders and their mortgage insurers will have LVR restrictions, but as said above, it is still possible to get 95% loans in most areas as long as other requirements are met.

My block has recently put in similar rules. No smoking on the public areas or common areas of the building such as foyer, hallways, carpark etc. Also no smoking on a balcony if the smoke will interfere with other unit holders – such as going into windows etc. This is in NSW and should be legal and a good idea – be good if you could ban people smoking in all indoor areas!

Why wouldn't it? Most trust deeds allow a trust to pay an income to a trustee for managing the affairs of the trust. Most trusts are also allowed to run a business and pay wages as well. They are usually very flexible.

But why pay a wage? Why not just pay a distribution instead. If you pay a wage then you need to worry about superannuation and tax.

Your mum can have 2 main residences with CGT exemption for up to 6months during the cross over period from buying/selling.

You could sign a contract now with your mum with an extended settlement and do your renos etc before completion. Or, if you think values are going to be flat, just leave it in your mum;s name for a while – but watch out if she is going to apply for the pension in the future.