Not sure if this has happened to any one else – somehow I don't think so.
Received a call on Wednesday from my solictors confirming the $ value for the bank cheque for settlement for an IP on Friday and stated to her that its was less than I thought it would be. Never the less dutifully gave the cheque to the solicitor on Thursday.
Received the confirmation call on Friday that settlement was done and dusted.
Had a nagging feeling so sat down on the weekend to confirm that I had not paid enough.
Received a panic call from my solicitors about noon today saying that the vendors solicitors had made an error and I had not paid enough. Amazingly enough the vendors solicitors let settlement go ahead with approx $10k less for the vendor (they had not confirmed the amount of deposit I had paid to the Real Estate agent – which was only 5%).
I calmly stated, hey just provide me with the account details and I will transfer the funds across – no worries ( I seriously believe what goes around comes around) and plus it wasn't the sellers fault.
So.. could I have kept my $10K since settlement had actually taken place? What would you have done?
Thats a big mistake to make!
Terryw | Structuring Lawyers Pty Ltd / Loan Structuring Pty Ltd
http://www.Structuring.com.au
Email MeLawyer, Mortgage Broker and Tax Advisor (Sydney based but advising Aust wide) http://www.Structuring.com.au
Contractually you are bound to pay the purchase price regardless of the ballsup by the solicitors. It also can have repercussions on your solicitor as they didn't check the contract of sale either when it came down to the deposit paid.
As per Scott No Mates – if you wanted to avoid a long legal process doing what you did was the right choice… that and that whole morality/ethical thing?
As a side note – if I was the other person I would
a) find myself a new solicitor; and
b) read up about my rights when it comes to being represented. The Legal Practitioner associations don’t really look too lightly on professional negligence!You did the right thing – and the solicitors screwed up bad.
Both solicitors buggered up. They should be doing their own calculations.
A mortgage broker told me an interesting story recently.
At Auction Bidding went up to one million and twenty thousand dollars.
Auctioneer states Sold
Vendor signs sales contract but doesn't read it
Amount on contract $1,000,020 instead of $1,020,000
That is a $19,980 difference
There was an article in API where the price was say one million but the signed sales contract by the Vendor was
$100000 instead of being $1,000,000 but written wording was one million dollars.
Luckily common sense prevailed in this situation.I would have paid it,
But I would be looking at my solicitor very closely, espeically seen as you had mentioned you think you should be paying more, solicitor should have had a closer look,If I was the seller, I would fire that lawyer, there is no room for mistakes,
I have had 4 lawyers work for me over time but I have probabaly approached 8, Currently I have 1 lawyer that is really good and one lawyer that I may dump and the rest of them were hopeless costing me money and making stuff ups, 1 lawyer made over 3 stuffups on the 1 job and he didn't want to no about anything when I discovered them.
We pay good money for crap service
It just gets better.
Settlement is all done and dusted, tenant is paying rent (late – Grrr), paying interest on loan (unavoidable) and usual water bills coming in to be paid.This IP is in the western suburbs of Melbourne. Received a water account (for usage only – no Annual Parks Charge) and find its in credit (thats ok), but received another account from another company (for Annual Park Charge Only).
Rang 2nd company to confirm that is correct. No problems with that. But then notice $117 fee owing at settlement + my charge of $60.
I can understand how it happened. Annual Parks Charge bill only comes in once a year from a different provider (easy to forget). All my other water charges are combined from one provider.
So who do I approach?
My solicitor – will they charge me for them to investigate.
The vendors solicitor – will they care?
I have paid the bill in full as I didn't want to be in arrears with the provider. If this situation goes on (trying to reclaim my money) for a long time, I didn't want a black mark against my name.
Your thoughts.
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