A bizarre conversation with my solicitor

Things begin to fall into place. Finance was approved. The real estate agent had the deposit and contracts were exchanged. A settlement date was set. I’ve always been so curious about the process involved in settlement, and at some stage would like to be present when it takes place.

I imagine a darkish, sombre room. The room might be wall-panelled, perhaps a glassed book case stands against a wall, a mahogany table dominates the room, everything reeking of conservatism and money; perhaps it would be the office of a bank. On opposite sides of the table the solicitors or conveyancers are seated, representing me and the vendor. The real estate agent might be present, and perhaps a couple of bankers representing the financial organisations. The very stern solicitors would study the contract of sale, check the sale price, ensure the cheques were just so, and then various documents would be slid across the table.

Though, probably a brightly lit office tended by clerks and junior legal staff manage one settlement after the other, and the coffee stained table is strewn with snack wrappers. It would have to be this way given the lack of care some conveyancers and solicitors demonstrate.

I was curious about this particular settlement, given that it was almost 200km distant from Canberra. I wondered that one or other of the legal teams would travel to the other city, or meet somewhere between the two locations. Neither of these options were considered, when I enquired. My solicitor would contract someone to act on his behalf, or if no one could be found, the vendor’s solicitor would be asked to handle everything. Did I mishear something: the vendor’s solicitor would do everything. Sounds like a potential conflict of interests. It’s done all the time, he said.

A $90,000 loose end tidied up

The Virgin card arrived in the post this afternoon. At last I can correct that dumb mistake that occurred during settlement and deposit the $90,000 cheque. But I wonder what it has cost me in increased interest repayments.

S called in at the Belconnen solicitor’s office to pick up the cheque. She was treated in an offhand manner by the staff at the office. That was at William Heague, Belconnen. She was amused to note, that when they spotted her title (Dr) their manner changed markedly.

Stupidity, incompetence, and lies

At settlement I had a couple of cheques issued in my name, the larger of which was in the region of $90,000. The cheque was not drawn at my request and was done due to absent mindedness, error in judgment, or incompetence by the people undertaking settlement on my behalf.

I had rang David, from Virgin Money when I first got wind of it as I was concerned I hadn’t completed all the various forms exactly as required. He telephoned to say I had completed everything correctly. So why did the Virgin agent and my solicitor go making decisions on their own and fowling things up? My solicitor had said she was advised by Virgin to draw the $90,000 cheque. It could have been that the Virgin agent knew little about banking, nor how to conduct a property settlement. It could have been that the solicitor had little regard for my interests. I don’t know what it was, but someone had goofed. No one sought advice from me. If there was any doubt they should have contacted me and asked.

I rang Wridgways to find out when our furniture would be delivered. It would be delivered on the 4th July. Now that’s curious, considering Wridgways in Melbourne said our things would be delivered definitely before July. It sounds as though Mark De Lacy, the Melbourne Wridgways guy, was making things up when he said our furniture would be delivered before the end of the month.

Is that the technique? Whenever there is a problem, just open your mouth and tell the punters a whole heap of crap. It doesn’t matter whether it’s true or not just smooth the waters to get them out of your hair. Well, it fitted with the whole Wridgways experience.

A duty of carelessness

The solicitor rang. She said, “Settlement went through without a problem.” This was really good to hear. And then she dropped a bombshell. She mentioned, in what seemed like a passing comment that there was a cheque for about $90,000 in my name. The cheque was in her office and ready to pick up.

Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!

This was dumb to write a cheque. This amount was to remain in my home loan offset. I didn’t need this money as a cheque, cash, or anything else. This was an amount that was built into my home loan should I need cash for something in the future, but at the home loan interest rates.

The home loan interest is calculated on the amount that is borrowed. I had no intension of borrowing the full amount available to me, but now that a cheque has been issued the interest that will be calculated will be based on the full amount, rather than just the cost of the house. While these funds remained in the offset I would not be charged interest on them.

This offset amount was never actually intended to be borrowed. It was money for a rainy day; a kind of nest egg. However, now that a cheque has been issued I will be paying interest on an additional $90,000 that I have no need for. She said she “…was instructed by Virgin’s agent to draw all funds.” I find that difficult to believe. It was Virgin that had set up the offset. Surely, they knew what an offset was. Surely, they’d know they were going to send me a cheque book. Surely, they’d know I could write my own cheques whenever I wished. Whatever it was that happened between these two at settlement I’ll never know, but between the two of them they goofed badly, and stuffed me up into the bargain.

Put it back into the account, I said.
It can’t be done, the solicitor said.
Why not, I asked.
Because it’s in your name, she said.
I have no means to put it into my account, I said.
She said sorry.

Aggh!

Virgin Home Loans claim that one of the ways they keep their interest rates low is by having no shop front. With a bank you front up to one of their branch offices and carry out your business. With Virgin there is no branch office that you can visit to speak to someone from Virgin Money. Everything is done by phone, and if you want to make additional payments you go to your local Post Office with your special Virgin Home Loan ID card in hand and make the deposit, and your deposit gets directed into your account that’s encoded on the plastic card. This seems a simple process, and that’s how I would deposit the cheque into my home loan account. However, as a new customer Virgin Money hadn’t got around to sending this card. Without the card I can’t return the funds to my account. So, until the deposit card gets delivered I’m paying out more on interest than I need.

I think I just need to remind everyone about the people I’m dealing with: My home loan comes courtesy of Virgin Money who provided the cheque that I don’t need, and my solicitor who works with William Heague accepted this cheque without my instruction.

Both the lender and the solicitor appear to have shown little interest in my needs. Acted contrary to my wishes, in fact. You’d think with mobile phones someone might have spotted this whole situation as a bit odd, and thought, perhaps they should speak to me. But no, that was too difficult. Lazy sods. And to think these people bill for their services.

More logistics

Fay, our Warrandyte conveyancer, rang to say everything was going fine. Hey. That’s a surprise.

She said settlement will take place at 11.30am on the 13th, that a cheque will be made out and sent to the Canberra solicitor to cover Stamp Duty, with the remainder left over for the purchase of the Flynn property. She also said that a section 27 form has been faxed to our real estate agent in Warrandyte to release the deposit to us.

I called by and picked up the cheque from the real estate agent. The deposit had been eaten into by the agent’s commission: $9230, advertising: $4115.74, GST: $1339.07, other expenses: $45 (I wonder what that was). The timing for this cheque was good, as I’d just stretched my credit union cheque account to the limit.

There was no sign of the Virgin Home Loan documents as yet, so I rang them. Apparently, they were very busy, but I was on the list of things to do their end. Well, at least the wheels were turning.

The lease for the car seemed to be a more difficult process than I’d expected, and not real cheap either. Though the exact costs will have to be worked out later, when I get some time.

A few things were selling on ebay: my old motor cycle, mulching machine, and of course the trailer were the biggest items.

Packing gets serious

Finished packing a stack of books into boxes. Books are very heavy, so I only packed them half way and filled the remainder of the box with linen. They were still heavy, but manageable.

I had listed some items on ebay, and amongst all the bits and pieces I had up for sale was an old trailer. Despite the trailer’s decrepit condition I felt sad in offering it for sale as I had built it as a young man, and it was my first major welding project. It was really very badly rusted, and the photographs I posted clearly showed holes in the metal. It sold, the guy who got it seemed happy, and once more ebay amazes me.

I got only one box filled with crockery. It’s slow going.

So far, I hadn’t heard anything as to our idea of dumping the solicitor in favour of dealing directly with Melody in the rental of our property. We have to stay in the house past settlement date and the legal fees for setting up such an arrangement is to cost $300. S was wondering if we should get the solicitor’s phone number. I had a better idea. I rang Melody and put the idea to her directly. Without hesitation she said, “paying the solicitor set up fees was stupid,” and was happy to have an informal arrangement. We’ll put $350 in her hand when she visits some time next week. So that’s organised.

Later in the day Fay, our conveyancer, rang in response to a message I had left, regarding the same issue. She said that she had contacted Melody’s solicitor, and as Melody was on a rostered day off today was not contactable. She said I would have to wait until next week for an answer. I was just off the phone to Melody and got it sorted. The reason I was able to speak her was because she was at home. They’re all next to useless.

Don't trust the removalist

I rang to check how things were going with the removalist companies. I wasn’t aware of it when I started this, but it turned out that there was a contract between the company I worked and a particular removalist firm. I had no choice but to use them. I needn’t have got quotes from other companies. Wridgways was the preferred company.

I rang the Wridgways Canberra office to check on the quotation. They said they were busy “crunching the numbers.” That could mean they are working on a price, or it could have meant something along the lines of oops we’d better get on with that job.

An important point for me to check with the removalists was when they might want to be paid. This was an issue that was dear to my heart. I had a nasty experience when I was moving from Tasmania to Victoria a few years ago. Something I didn’t want to repeat. We had used Watkins Removals in that shift. I was at work in my new job on the day our furniture arrived, and S rang to say the removalist truck had arrived at our new place. She said the men were refusing to unload our furniture until they were paid. I found this an unexpected event, particularly as it hadn’t been raised with us beforehand. It was a tricky situation, made worse by the fact that there wasn’t much in the way of cash in my bank account at that time. I got out of it by sweet talking my boss, who faxed a note to the company indicating they would be assisting with expenses, and to bill them. I didn’t want to be in that situation again, and put it to Wridgways. They assured me that this situation would not occur, and they said they would probably bill the company. Anyway, it’s as well to commit people to arrangements, and then you can argue with them later from solid ground.

I noticed on the documentation I’d received from my solicitor there was reference to something about Perpetual Limited. It sounded like the name of an insurance company. Apparently it is the organisation that will be funding my home loan, along with a little note I almost missed which said that if this name did not appear on my insurance policy, settlement may be delayed. I’m glad I spotted it. I would have thought such an important issue would have been emphasized by all concerned.

I spoke with David at Virgin Home Loans, and he explained something of the background, much of which I didn’t understand. So, if I get this wrong, I’m sorry. However, it would seem that Virgin Money operates under something called a ‘scrutinized program’. An organisation called Perpetual Limited, which is affiliated with Reserve Bank managed investment bonds of the Macquarie Bank. The consequence of this is that Perpetual Limited is an interested party in our home loan. If the house burns down they want their cut. Hell, I thought I was borrowing Virgin Money funds.

I had promised Fay, our Warrandyte conveyancer, some information regarding the trouble we had been put to in getting the deposit, and emailed this along with a proposal for her to put to Melody, through her solicitor, that we deal directly with Melody, rather than giving her solicitor a $300 set up fee to rent the Warrandyte house. I’m annoyed at the whole thing. I’m not feeling too kindly to paying $650 for about a week’s stay.

Pat the Warrandyte neighbour has been coming down making a nuisance of herself. It’s not our fault that her cat would rather sleep in our place than live in a cage at Pat’s house. No wonder it escapes and seeks out a snugly warm place.

Greedy lawyer, bungling conveyancer

The nicest thing that happened today was that David from Virgin Home Loans rang to say that our home loan had been approved. The valuation had been sent in on the Saturday (now there’s an odd day of the week for someone to be working), and with that being the last step the funds for the loan were approved. He said he would contact Vickie, the Canberra conveyancer, and Virgin’s solicitors would send the relevant documentation regarding the home loan to Warrandyte.

Fay, our Warrandyte conveyancer, had got word from Melody’s solicitor about the change in settlement date. I was wondering if that was in response to me emailing our real estate agent, who made contact with them to arrange it, or was it just coincidence? Who knows, and who cares? The settlement date has been changed, and that was excellent news. However the bad news was that her solicitor will charge $300 to set up the documentation whereby we rent our property for $350 pw for the few days we have to stay past the settlement date. Fay said her solicitor is one of the most expensive in Melbourne. S was enraged at this fee. I expected a nominal fee, but not the $300. What sort of crap is this? Greedy lawyer.

I was pleased it was the last legal problem. Though, the idea of paying a fee on top of rent to rent my own house was burning at me throughout the day. Perhaps we should charge a $300 fee for a final inspection. We didn’t get our deposit from this buyer for so darn long, and I didn’t charge a fee. And now this. To point out that this is unfair is an understatement.

Two letters arrived. One from Fay – Transfer of Land, and a Goods Statement. Another letter arrived from Vickie confirming that contracts had been exchanged. The letter went on to say that “settlement will be on or before 19th May, next.” Hang on. Wasn’t May last month? It must be a typo. I liked the reference to when stamp duty had to be paid: “By this date, from sale proceeds in Victoria.” Which date was that? Oh, yes: “this date.” How more vague can you be? It was also interesting to see under the Insurance heading: “Lender’s name: Perpetual Limited.” I wonder where that came from as I had just insured the property with GIO. I’m not sure if there is any point in trying to work this out? It’s confusing. Though, mistakes such as the typo don’t extend your faith in the people managing your affairs.

Settlement is settled

S spent a couple of hours running some tutorials. She said she was tough on the students, and it worked: no talking in class, and the latecomers copped it.

I was at a planning day at work. I really don’t know why managers keep having planning days. I’ve seldom seen anything useful emerge from them. I think most of the people who were there saw it more of a social get together than anything constructive. Though, the talk by our leader was inspiring. It was during this meeting that Vickie, the conveyancer, rang. She is helping me purchase the Flynn property. There had been a development.

Vickie said she had some information. The vendor’s solicitor contacted her regarding settlement day. They wanted the 16th June. They wanted what? Hold on a bit. It was only yesterday we received advice that the contract was signed with the 19th June as settlement. It sounds as though someone is telling fibs or generally making a hash of things. They want to put the 16th on the contract and do nothing until the 19th June. That was Vickie’s plan, yesterday. So, that’s it. Done. Presumably. Both legal eagles came up with the same idea independently.

S was wondering if this meant we could move into the place on the 16th June. Perhaps we could rent it from them.

Vickie also mentioned that our contact from Virgin Home Loans rang to say the valuation was in and approval of the loan may be mid-next week.

A fuzzy deal

Something always happens. Just about every day in this epic some new issue crops up, and here was another event filled day. You could say it makes the day interesting. On the other hand it’s stress I would rather do without.

First up, B rang to see if I could push ahead with the contract exchange. Not that such things are up to me, but it seemed a reasonable request. It would be a gesture of good will. After all, our vendors had exchanged on their new house, and they may be feeling vulnerable living in limbo. I gather they bought their new property at auction, and of course there’s no backing away from an auction sale.

So, I rang Vickie, my Canberra conveyancer, to ask what the delay was on the exchange. We had a short conversation about the merits of organising this settlement before settlement in Melbourne was locked in and finance confirmed. But it’ll be a sure thing. Surely it will? She promised to do the exchange today.

I rang David, my contact at Virgin Home Loans. Actually, I’d been phoning him every hour and hanging up when the answering machine clicked in; I wanted to speak to him, not a machine. Anyway, I got him eventually, and passed on the concerns of B. He said all the valuer really focuses on with private houses is to see if the building seems structurally sound and they look for evidence of pest damage, but they don’t crawl around under the floor or in the attic. He will phone me and a letter will go out, possibly tomorrow or Monday, when the loan application has been approved. I also mentioned the surprise email I got from Virgin.

An email arrived from Virgin with the following message: “In your hunt for a home loan you stopped by Virgin Money to see what you could borrow, but as yet we haven’t heard back from you…” What? David put that down to administrative error of no consequence. It was a discouraging experience in the procedures used by Virgin.

Apparently all the documents I had faxed to Virgin were okay. David said there had only been one outstanding issue, but it had been resolved. He said they were interested to know whether we actually owned our Melbourne property, and then they came to a determination which resolved the matter. Curiously, they didn’t get in touch with me to provide any evidence of ownership, in their determination. Apart from me telling them, that is. But that’s hardly evidence. They must have their own source of information. Interesting.

I organised insurance cover, protecting the building only, using GIO again. The last thing you’d want to happen would be to buy a property, have it burn down, and not be insured. I’ll insure the contents when we get actual contents into it.

Late in the day Vicki rang saying she was, “… trying to do the exchange.” Now, that was an interesting expression, I thought. Trying. Without appearing to appear rude, I asked, “What does that mean?” The owners of the Flynn house, through their solicitor, a mate of the owner, she added, want to change settlement to the 16th June, rather than the 19th, to match the settlement of their new house. It also transpired that contracts had not yet been exchanged, as B had said. Can you trust real estate agents? I told Vickie we couldn’t do this, as it would leave little time for moving. Besides that, the new settlement date was just about to be set, and we don’t want to change it again. How much of an idiot are we expected to be while pandering to other people’s whims?

This news had put me on edge. It was frustrating. I was wondering how to deal with it, and was on the verge of calling Vickie back, and putting a few ideas to her. I was wondering if a compromise could be made that might benefit me, like having the vendors pick up the bill for having our removalist pack our things, or have them pay for our truck rental, but she got to the phone first with a solution.

She will write our settlement as the 16th as requested, but do nothing until the 19th. I don’t understand that. That arrangement sounded somewhat illegal, and I said as much to her. No, it’s fine, apparently. She went on to explain that there is a 7-day lapse period that banks allow, to cover situations where funds or cheques are sent to the wrong place. (What? That sounded strangely familiar!) She also said there isn’t a penalty clause in the contract, saying this as though it were a significant point. I was missing something in the conversation. I wasn’t quite sure if that was a good or a bad thing, but in this particular circumstance it seemed to please her. Because of the 7-day fuzzy period, no one will be confronted for funds that are not forthcoming. We won’t be asked to get a bridging loan. No one will. So I asked, “Why don’t you write 16-19th in the contract?” No, apparently you can’t do that; it has to be a specific date.

So, to confirm this conversation, I repeated: you write the 16th which means nothing, and we sit on our hands until the 19th when the money comes through, and then we do the deal. “That’s right,” she replied. I was surprised and perplexed.

It was all happening a bit faster than I could cope, but it was kind of exciting too. I asked about the 3-day delay in funds transfer we were being forced to go through and whether the 7-day fuzziness could have taken care of it. I asked her if we should have just not troubled ourselves, just adopting a casual attitude. “Perhaps,” she replied.

On a more mundane note, it seems as though Abo, the cat, is giving us some trouble. Abo is a lovely Abyssinian, and from time to time comes wandering over to our property in Warrandyte, in much the way cats do. Our block is a block or two distant from Pat’s place. Abo belongs to Pat, one of our neighbours. The cat normally lives in a cage in Pat’s house. No wonder it keeps escaping and visiting us. Why would a cat want to live in a cage when it can saunter over to our place, steal some of our cats’ food, and have a nap on our bed? Pat was gruff, rude, and off-hand when she approached S about the cat’s whereabouts. I think she thought S was attempting to steal her cat. And this is another good reason to be shot of Melbourne, with such horrible neighbours.

S was to do a stint of teaching on the next day. Class was scheduled to start at 8.00am which means a 5.30am rise if she is to get there on time. It’s the traffic chaos in Melbourne, you see. I drove her to this place once. That was enough. At one section on the Springvale Road during peak hour, we didn’t get out of first gear for about 20 minutes, and much of that time we were stationary, waiting for the car in front to move. And this too is yet another good reason to leave Melbourne.

Can legal people go any slower

B, the Canberra real estate agent, rang to hassle me. She wanted me to get on to my conveyancer. B could very easily become a pain in the neck. Anyway, she had a point: she asked if I could contact Vickie, from William Heague, and get the exchange of contracts pushed through. B is probably being pressured by the owners of the house in Flynn.

The settlement date change seemed to be known and agreed to by everyone except the legal people. Vickie won’t proceed with the exchange until all the paperwork is in order, and in particular, that Fay, our Melbourne conveyancer, confirms the settlement date with her, and Virgin Home Loans confirm the loan. There’s not much for me to do, really.

My contact at Virgin Home Loans is difficult to catch at times. He said the increase to $150k is okay. He asked about the documents I had faxed, as he hadn’t seen them as yet. I told him what I had sent and he seemed satisfied, and assumed they must be held up somewhere on his side. He also said he had “ordered” a valuation, but he was perplexed when I said no one has been contacted this end as yet about it. The person doing the valuation was supposed to contact the agent here in Canberra to set it up with the current owners, but no one has done that yet. Seems like Virgin haven’t quite got things worked out yet.

S called in at our Melbourne real estate agent’s office to present her thank you gifts that she had bought for them. She bought a gold pen, and she thinks he was pleased. Though by the sounds of what I heard, I gather he would rather have had a letter of commendation. Something for his portfolio, of course. While in the office, he asked if he could show Melody through. S doesn’t want to do this. I’ll do it. S is more enraged with Melody than me it would seem. Though I wasn’t impressed by her one little bit.

I have been spending some time checking out some more utes in the paper and on the web. There are a few possibilities here and there. I’ve also looking into Novated Lease. I wonder where it got that name from. I’m not sure if leasing is for us, but there really aren’t too many alternatives; this could be one.

S is feeling edgy about the contracts not being exchanged, concerned that the vendors may be anxious and leave the house in a poor condition when they vacate, because we don’t seem to be keeping our end of the bargain. She suggested I get Vickie to get a wriggle on, leaving the worry of settlement in Melbourne and the home loan in our hands.

Some maintenance

It’s true: credit cards work wonders in cleaning the frost off the car windscreen, and there was so much frost it looked like piles of fluffy snow at the edges of the screen. The poor little starter motor in my EXA is also sounding as though it has a sore throat or a cold.

It was just a sort of administrative day today.

Vickie, of Willian Heague our Canberra conveyancer: I dropped off the contract, checked that she would note that work needed to be done to the three wardrobes in the house, the garden shed was noted (I didn’t want it removed), got her to mark S and myself as joint tenants, and handed over the deposit bond certificate. She will contact Fay, our Melbourne conveyancer, and have her send a cheque to cover Stamp Duty, which has to be paid promptly (on or before settlement, I think). We should have a final inspection too.

Fay, our Melbourne conveyancer: I rang Fay to advise her of the changed date for settlement, but in her unique manner, she really wanted to know about the insurance details first. Melody is contacting her solicitor today, apparently. So this should (hopefully) work out! Fay said the normal cost of setting up a contract to rent would be about $180-$200, but not required as it is us who are renting. I don’t quite understand that.

Virgin Money, our home loan lender: I rang Virgin to check that everything was proceeding okay. It turned out that, despite someone phoning S and getting the credit card number from her, in case we “should we back out of the loan” after making arrangements to do a valuation, the number wasn’t recorded, and a valuation check hasn’t yet been organised. So, I gave them the credit card number again, and accepted their advice that a valuation will be organised. I must keep checking on them. It puts you on edge when people fail to do things that they should.

B, the real estate agent from Flynn: I emailed B her and subsequently spoke with her to keep her in the picture with developments. The developments being the new settlement date, valuation needing to be done, contract with Vickie, expected delivery of our belongings.

Mal, Westpac loans officer: He emailed me hoping I had a nice stay in Melbourne, which was nice of him, and he reminded me that his offer was still open. Well, that story has been put to bed now. It’ll be a Virgin home loan. I still remember his attitude and can’t get over it. Westpac will remain my bank; I wonder if he’ll remember me when I walk in there.

And S buys a few gifts for the helpful Melbourne real estate agents and their staff.

While all these house issues are going on things are building at work. I have a major deadline within a week and then when that’s done I want to shoot off to Melbourne straightaway afterwards. I also have a new task to come to gips with at work. I can’t focus on studying it. I find I’m filing, tidying up, and cleaning the desk. It’s avoidance behaviour.

When will the problems end?

I spent some time bringing some boxes and stuff down from the attic on Sunday. It’s surprising how much stuff was up there. I packed the car with some of it, and was off back to Canberra in the afternoon. It was a particularly cold trip without the heater. But the audio books were great, particularly the Bill Bryson tape of his book ‘Down Under’. Bryson has a fantastic view of the world and he has some really funny sections in the book, and I loved his views on Canberra. I have only positive memories of this book. It’s a must read, or in my case it’s a must listen.

I rang Virgin Home Loans to keep things on the boil. Yes, the materials I had faxed to them had been sufficient. The home loan application moved to the next phase, and a property inspection was required. So, when the property inspector gets in touch I will contact B, who will contact the owners to organise access, to get the evaluation. I don’t really know why they are bothering with a valuation. I’m sure they could recover their investment without too much effort.

I took this opportunity to enquire if the loan could be increased from $100k to $150k. I wanted access to some extra money, at home loan rates, should I need it. They didn’t think this would be a problem, but they had to do some internal checks to confirm it. Oh, they’re busy little bees.

Someone from Virgin also rang S to confirm this next phase, and to advise that it’d cost $490 to back out if we change our minds about using Virgin for a home loan, and to ask her for our credit card number.

A fax arrived for me at work from Deposit Power, to say that the bond certificate had been approved and the original was in the mail. This seemed to be one of the few things that had worked out with a minimum of fuss. There is a lot to be said for doing it yourself.

I rang Vickie, my Canberra conveyancer, and asked about settlement, and whether she knew about the 3-day hold up that banks impose on interstate funds transfers. Yes, she did know about it. I wonder why she didn’t tell me. I was tempted to unleash my rage at her, which might have made me feel good. I elected to keep quiet, not get her off side in the interests of good relations lest she deliberately put my file to the bottom of her priority list. This is exasperating. Aggh!

As we can’t change the Canberra settlement date we should try to change the Warrandyte settlement date, to alleviate this three-day funds hold up issue. S phoned Fay, our Melbourne conveyancer. She finds Fay grumpy, and they both get a bit short with each other. I rang Fay. I asked her not to write to Melody’s solicitor as she was planning to do. She agreed to put that on hold, at least until there was a plan that would work. Better to write to confirm something, than beg for something, or attempt to ‘press’ them into changing the settlement date. S tried to contact our Melbourne agent, but both agents were at a conference in Sydney until Wednesday. What next?

I email our Melbourne real estate agent with information I’d got from Vickie, our Canberra conveyancer, with information that indicates the date that would allow sufficient time to transfer the funds. That is, if Melody would change the settlement date, again. I would feel embarrassed about this, but as Melody stuffed us around with the deposit, I don’t really care. Anyway, this is the fault of the conveyancers in my opinion.

Here are the conveyancers details, should anyone be interested:

Melbourne
Canberra

I found it interesting that Vickie said to me that our Melbourne conveyancer said the date was “locked in to the 19th,” because Melody’s solicitor had said so. Nothing was ‘said’ in so far as I knew. I know this is a small point, perhaps on the verge of hair-splitting, but it turned out that Fay had a letter from Melody’s solicitor to say settlement would be on the 19th. Well, of course she did. It was me who asked our Melbourne real estate agent to ask Melody to set it to the 19th because B had asked me if the settlement date could be changed to the 19th. The lack of communication going on here is astounding.

Vickie also reported that she had received no information from the Flynn solicitor. I thought the owner was doing his own conveyancing. At least, that’s what the contract stated. I asked Vickie to keep me informed of any developments, and I said I’d keep her posted with anything I found out.

S rang Westpac to look into this 3-day delay that’s causing the current problem. Apparently, there was something called ‘portability’ that will allow the funds to be transferred. This sounded like a positive development, but I was sceptical. I don’t believe a word of it. I think this person is talking about transferring a home loan from one person to another. The home loan that we almost signed up for at Westpac boasts this very feature. It’s amazing the crap people will feed you instead of good advice.

S got in touch with our Melbourne real estate agent, who got in touch with Melody. That was a lucky break. No one could get hold of her before the deposit was paid. Maybe she was hiding. He asked her if the settlement date can be changed. Yes, no problem. Wow, something that worked.

I put the phone down after S’s call. A simple answer: “Yes,” and the problem had disappeared. I was stunned. She said, “Yes,” and the problem went away. Settlement date can be moved, yes. No need for bridging finance, yeah. We can relax, yes.

Nothing had been simple so far. I was staring at the empty cup in front of me. My eyes were focused somewhere about a mile below the cup on the desk in front of me. After a minute of so, I rang S again, and asked what she was doing. “Wandering about the house in a daze,” she said. So was I; in a daze that is, I said to her. S said, “This is awful. When will it end?”

Our gruff old real estate agent is well and truly a friend, now. And we have a new settlement date. That should do the trick. But we will have to rent our house from Melody for about a week. So, $350 plus set up costs will be a lot more pleasant that a bridging loan. Anyway, Virgin doesn’t do bridging loans.

A loan organised, settlement stuffed

We visited Westpac at Eltham to talk to their loans officer about home loans and I went over my recent experiences with Mal at Belconnen. Who knows, a new enquiry with someone different might put something new on the plate for us to consider.

The loans officer we spoke with was hesitant to ‘step on his toes’ as she said, “he had progressed the loan,” which was interesting because I never said we’d be going with Westpac. In fact I had been open with Mal saying how I was shopping around, and would let him know my decision when I returned from Melbourne. The Eltham loans officer was very helpful, and explained the various options and how they might benefit or disadvantage us.

She couldn’t better or match Virgin’s rate, but came up with an alternative – a Premium Option loan. This loan did not have an offset facility but the extra amount beyond what we paid remained available for redraw; I presume this was the ‘limit’ that was available with our previous home loan.

It’s as well to confirm things. It does no harm and you might regret not checking later. We got word from Virgin Home Loans.

There was a letter waiting for us when we got back home after visiting the bank. It was from Virgin advising that a Rocket Repay Home Loan application had been approved. It was good to get it. We’ll go with Virgin rather than Westpac.

Later in the day, we also visited our conveyancer who was assisting in the sale of our Warrandyte property. There was some paperwork to be taken care of. Fay, our conveyancer, worked from her home and had set up an office there. Whatever works, I guess. Her office was on the way to one of our shopping centres, so it was convenient to call in there on the way.

Fay was an unusual person. She was quite an experience to work with. She seemed to know her job in so far as she always had an answer whenever requested, but we both found conversing with her to be an unusual experience. Most communication with her seldom flowed as a conversation does. Possibly, with her being in this industry for so long she had come across all or most questions people put to her. She had a disconcerting habit of not waiting until you had finished asking the question and would interrupt and begin offering you the answer before you had finished putting the question. On most occasions this okay, but sometimes she should have waited until the question was out there.

We passed across the documents she needed and sat waiting while she completed her work. I thought, given this opportunity, with the three of us together that I might ask about settlement. I was curious as to the procedures that might happen at settlement. I had various assumptions about what happens during these transactions. To me, settlement was when the deal is completed: the buyer (through their conveyancer) provides the money, and the seller (through their conveyancer) hands over the title and keys of the property, or something similar. I have a semi romantic image of people seated around a large mahogany table in a wood panelled room, with them carefully and systematically checking their documents and passing cheques around.

It’s probably nothing like that, but because the public seldom get to see what happens it has always been both a mystery and a curiosity to me. However, I didn’t get too far in my enquiry when we got side tracked onto a particular aspect of settlement. I’m glad I asked, and thank my lucky stars to have asked. My innocent little question was quite an eye opener, as it happened. I wonder why no one mentioned the problem to us.

It turned out that there will be a delay in transferring funds following the sale of our Warrandyte property to when they become available for the Canberra property. It seems that banks have set things up so that there is a three day delay in the funds transfer process. It doesn’t matter whether you have the cash in the bank, the technicalities of which are not clear to me, but the funds from the settlement of our Warrandyte house will not be available to purchase the Canberra house until three business days have passed. The settlement date of the Canberra house is the 19th June. The settlement date of the Warrandyte house was a few days earlier; insufficient time for the funds to be transferred.

Fay said this is not a problem when buying and selling within the same state because the bank cheque can be exchanged on the same day, but there is no way we can get the funds interstate during business hours, on the same day. She also said the funds could be deposited directly into our Canberra solicitor’s trust account, but they still wouldn’t have access to the money for three business days.

Apparently, funds sometime go astray during interstate transactions. Three days was considered by banks to be an appropriate time to ensure the funds went to the correct locations. If the funds went missing it could be investigated before settlement was scheduled. There is a certain cautious logic in that arrangement, but I wonder who gets the interest during those three days: oh, don’t tell me it’s the banks.

You would have thought the solicitors and conveyancers who were organising the sale and purchase for me would have been aware of this and attempted to avoid the problem. It wasn’t so long ago that the Canberra agent had asked if our Warrandyte settlement date could be shifted to match the Flynn settlement date, and this was done. This was no doubt at the Flynn owner’s request, the owner of Flynn is a solicitor who was doing his own conveyancing. Why didn't he know? So, how is this dilemma to be resolved?

One solution might be getting the settlement of the Canberra house put back a few days – I will ask B, our agent to make some enquiries to see if this can be done. Another solution may be to change settlement of the Warrandyte house forward three days. I don’t really want bridging money for some restriction the banks had imposed.

And I thought our problems were over when Deposit Power rang saying the Bond Certificate was in the mail.

I would have thought that a pair of conveyancers working for the same client would get together and work these things out. I would have thought that this was part of the service that I was paying them; to alleviate problems. They both knew I was buying/selling interstate. So why didn’t they offer advice that would help with the transaction rather than potentially stuffing it up. Aggh!

About bloody time!

A busy day, the biggest event that took place was that the deposit came through; about $36,400 of it according to the real estate agent.

But it was frantic day before that news came though. B, the Canberra real estate agent, had already written to me with a copy of the Instructions of Sale saying exchange of contracts was to be tomorrow. She also said I could inspect the property this week. Which was nice, but I wanted to ward her off. I suggested I take the contract to Melbourne, so that both S and I could study it properly. My actual reasoning was that, perhaps the deposit would be through by then. I was just trying to buy myself some extra time. Anyway, as it turned out she couldn’t tee up a time to see the work, and was to contact me later, possibly the following day. So there I was talking about various arrangements, trying to appear nonchalant, and all the while I was fretting that we might get caught out. The things I said and the manner I said them bore little relation to what I was thinking, most of the time.

I got a call from William Heague. This is the company who will be doing my conveyancing for the Flynn property. It appears that my previous contact Abby will no longer be doing this and I’ll be working with Vicki. She seems okay, and recommended having the work written into the contract, which sounds like a good idea to me. Though, you wonder about passing work from one person to the next. I hate picking up the threads of someone else’s work. It’s so hard to do. I also spoke to her about changing finance from Westpac to Virgin, which wasn’t a problem, she said. I just have to keep her posted. However, there was a problem on the vendor’s side with a change in solicitor. It seems that the owner, who is a lawyer, was going to do everything himself, will now only do his own property. This may have been the reason B said the contract exchange will be next week. That’s a relief. That was absolutely great timing on their part.

As far as our Warrandyte real estate agent was concerned, in addition to asking him to contact the bank to check for possible hold ups, at S’s suggestion I pressed the idea that our buyer get a personal loan to cover the deposit, and that if the Canberra property fell foul because our buyer’s deposit wasn’t coming through that we cancel the sale and consider removing the property from the market. Within an hour he was on the phone saying he had the deposit in his trust account. At bloody last! Was that coincidence, or did my threat get him on the phone to his bank manager to hurry things along. Who knows.

I opened my little bottle of champagne, that I’d been keeping for the purpose. S didn’t want her’s. She was feeling so flat, and generally pissed off over the whole experience that she didn't have the appetite for it. I felt a bit like that too. The chance of revelling in the excitement of the purchase of our new house had been extinguished by the antics of our buyer. The worry she put us through was horrible. It just wasn’t fair.

I spent ages on the phone to Virgin Home Loans getting a loan application lodged. S didn’t like the experience either when she had to go through it with them too. Virgin have relatively low fees and their interest rate was better than Westpac could offer. I rang Mal at Westpac and told him of what Virgin could offer. I wanted to play one off against the other. He said he couldn’t better the rate, except to offer a fixed interest rate for 3 years, which was better than Virgin’s fixed 3-year rate.

I raised the issue of the Bond Certificate with Mal, and he said he was only doing that under the assumption the loan would be provided through Westpac. He implied that I’d have to go through a bank for another Bond Certificate. This was not true. I don’t think he likes Virgin. Well, it’s the opposition, and darned good competition too. I subsequently rang Deposit Power, and was advised that anyone with the appropriate documentation can apply for a certificate. However, they do make you run around gathering documentation: the Melbourne house contract for sale, the Melbourne house title, the Canberra house contract, finance approval or pre-approval statement.

Early developments

I called into the real estate office to see the documentation on the property. It seemed that the previous owners were considering building an extension to the house, as there were plans for an addition off to one side of the building. I gather they wanted to leave space in the back for a pool. The back yard would certainly have plenty of room for it.

I asked the real estate agent who she considered would be a good conveyancer. She provided a list of conveyancers, short listing a few, and of them all recommended William Heague.

The settlement dates didn’t match perfectly, with our Warrandyte property falling on 16th June and the Canberra house on the 19th June. Something might be able to be done there. They are very close. I can’t determine as yet as to whether we can shift the Warrandyte settlement date to the 19th June. We were both of the view to give the buyer of our house as little regard as she is us. She has not paid the deposit. With such disregard for protocol perhaps we might just stay in the place until we’re ready to quit.

Despite our real estate agent's attempts to contact Melody to see how things are progressing with the deposit, there has been no word. Both S and I have feelings of excitement and concern: looking forward to moving into our new house, and worry that it may not happen if our buyer does not come through with the money.

I keep reassuring myself that she signed contract, is locked it, and there’s nothing to worry about. The solicitor isn’t sure if the bond certificate will be appropriate, and asked me to check it with the bank.

The conveyancer

A conveyancer was selected. It does no harm to get things organised early. The conveyance fee was estimated at $470. Nothing is ever cheep. I find it interesting that in some states, such as in Victoria, you can choose to use either the services of a conveyancer or a solicitor to conduct the property settlement tasks. Solicitors are notoriously more expensive than conveyancers, but the job still gets done by whoever does it. So, I don’t know why people use lawyers, when there is an alternative. There must be a lot of very suspicious individuals out there who think that it’s only a lawyer who can be trusted to do the job properly. Of course, in some states there is no choice. The ACT does not use conveyancers and it’s the same in Tasmania.

I don’t think it takes too much imagination to guess that a legal practice is not going to set a top lawyer to the job of sifting through land ownership documents and the rest of the guff that’s required for a property transaction when they can put a clerk on the job who is on a fraction of the salary, and no doubt charge top dollar for the service. If that’s going to happen, why not use a conveyancer in the first places; there are dozens listed in the phone book. Save some money.

You might like to think that if you employ these people to look after your interests, then that’s what they might do. I purchased a property in Tasmania some years ago, and of course, employed a solicitor to manage the transaction. One of the things that annoyed me was a letter I received from the solicitor asking me to check that the property described on the title was in fact the one that I intended to purchase. This is a reasonable concern, and requires a certain expertise.

I recall watching an evening current affairs TV program some years ago. One of the program’s segments was about a builder who had mistakenly constructed a house on the wrong building block. The house was constructed on the block next door to the one it should have been built on. A house is a difficult thing to move after it has been constructed. This would be a difficult situation for all concerned. The block owner wouldn’t want to pay for a house they did not order. The intended owner wouldn’t want to pay for a house they don’t have. I’m not sure how this was resolved, but it’s a dilemma to be avoided.

The solicitor’s letter went on to say I should also check the boundary pegs to ensure everything was as noted in the title document. Have you ever tried looking for a boundary peg on your property? Very often they don’t exist. Perhaps if I were a surveyor I could get my equipment out and determine the boundaries from the nearest benchmark. I am not a surveyor, and was annoyed by their request. I wrote to the solicitor suggesting that it was their job to do this and should be part of the conveyancing service. They said they would not proceed until I confirmed the details were accurate, and suggested I employ my own surveyor if I had doubts about the property boundaries.

I wasn’t impressed. I can’t help wondering if you’d be just as well picking up some how-to book and doing your own conveyancing.