Conveyancing Services.........give this company a miss!

J and I obtained the services of Sydney Conveyancing Services situated on Old Northern Road, Baulkham Hills, in August 2012 for the purchase of a block of land. It was a very simple contract. 

 

Our first appointment was for them to go through our contract and advise if there was anything out of the ordinary we needed to know. Preet Kaur explained that it was straight forward and she would like to hold onto the contract until settlement. She informed us that we would be required to make the deposit at a later stage.

The deposit was provided in December 2012 when we exchanged contracts. From this time on, there was virtually no contact with Sydney Conveyancing. I made contact by email in April 2013 to find out about a sunset clause in the contract. Then I made contact again in February 2014 to request that the contract be amended to reflect our full names for financial purposes. 

We were expecting the land to register in March so I emailed Preet every now and then between February and late March, and when land was still not registered, throughout April. I found that I had to chase her for an answer to my enquires. I found her condescending at times, telling me that she wasn't updated on a step by step basis, when all I wanted to know was had she received any further information on registration.

Our Mortgage Broker was constantly leaving phone messages and sending emails which she never replied to. I found it difficult to get any information from her, and she seemed to be a step behind everyone else (other solicitors and conveyancers of other buyers in the same estate had updates from the Vendor's Solicitor days before ours).

When it came to settlement she was able to perform her duties without any problems. However, when we received her invoice it was for $200 more than she had quoted us in the beginning.

My biggest grievance was that there was a clause in the land contract that stated our deposit could be put into an interest bearing account and that interest would be earned and split between the purchaser and the Vendor. It was only once the land registered and other purchasers were receiving in the vicinity of $400 - $850 in interest that we were made aware. We never received contract until after settlement when it was emailed to us.

J and I have emailed and phoned Preet in regards to this and she accepts no responsibility. She is blaming the Vendor's solicitor for a) not asking her if we wanted to put the deposit into an interest bearing account, b) we did not supply our TFN's, therefore it wasn't an option for us. She has even gone as far as to say that she is sure she informed us of it at the beginning and was going to check her paperwork and get back to us. One week on, she hasn't given us a call or sent an email, and she refuses to return calls.

She did not read the contract and as a consequence we missed out on interest which was rightfully ours. Our deposit was paid 15 months prior to registration. The interest would have almost paid her fees.

I would not recommend Sydney Conveyancing Services. She is not thorough, she does not take responsibility for her errors, she avoids phone calls, takes too long to reply to emails and when she does it doesn't make much sense. There is very little professionalism in the way she conducts business. This experience was disappointing and disheartening and I hope that this can save other potential clients the dramas that we experienced.

Finally....our commencement letter is released

We signed our construction loan documents last Wednesday and were told that the ACC letter should be emailed to EBH the following day. However, Thursday came and went and nothing.....

At 5:48pm on Friday afternoon I received a call from our mortgage angel whom informed us that CBA had further requirements before they could release the letter. It turns out that we never supplied the bank with a copy of our signed building contract, so I sent off an email to our CSA requesting her assistance.

Our ever efficient CSA emailed on Saturday advising she would forward a digital copy of our contract on Monday. So Monday comes and I email the contract, amended contract price, amended payment progress payment schedule and final tax invoice to our mortgage broker and hope for the best.

With no news on Monday or Tuesday I contact our Mortgage Broker whom emails the big wigs at CBA late Tuesday evening and on Wednesday at 12:02pm we receive our ACC letter!!

A big thank you goes out to Irene Cujko of Mortgage Choice Kings Langley.  She has been absolutely fantastic throughout this process. When there were dramas with the land loan Irene stepped in and got it sorted. Irene really understands construction loans and has gone the extra mile to make this happen for us.  Our Mortgage Angel assigned to us has also been a godsend. She kept us informed every step of the way. I would highly recommend Irene and her team at Mortgage Choice Kings Langley to anyone looking for a home loan.

The dramas of finance

Our land loan was a huge drama, one where we thought we wouldn't make settlement. But in the end, Irene Cujko of Mortgage Choice, Kings Langley pulled a number of strings and CBA got it all sorted in time for settlement scheduled a couple of hours later in the day.

We were told by Serge Cujko that the construction loan would be done once we had settled on the land, and so the documentation was lodged 2 days later (Friday 9th May 2014). It is now a week on and CBA have booked in a valuation of our land for tomorrow at 11am. So we are looking at least another week before we receive formal approval and the bank can issue our ACC.

This process is so frustrating. We cannot understand why it has had to be done this way. Mortgage Choice assure us that this is the way the bank operates. Nothing can be formally approved until after land settlement and so we have to wait.  Its stressful because all of our administrative requirements to Eden Brae have been fulfilled and they are waiting on the ACC.  We just want to get started.

In saying that....there has been a lot of action on the estate this week. There have been 5 blocks scraped and prepared for slabs. One block has now gotten their formwork done and a slab should be laid tomorrow. It is actually quite exciting watching other blocks commence construction. It gives us the sense that it is real. After years of waiting, construction has now commenced. We just have to be patient....our turn will come :)

And we can't wait!!

Tiling for our alfresco

J & I have decided we want to tile our alfresco area with a timber look tile, so for the past few weeks we have travelled to numerous tile shops to have a look at the selection of timber look tiles on offer.

We found one we really liked at Tile Mega Mart in Smithfield. They are Brazilian Porcelain timber look tiles with a retail price of $104 per m3. However, they were currently on special at $69 per m3.  Having been advised that there could be a 6 month wait on them should they be out of stock when we are ready to purchase them, we decided to go and put a deposit on them so that we could secure the stock they are currently holding. The good thing is that they are offering 4 months storage on purchases over $1,000.

So J & I dropped into to the store today and to our surprise, they have a sale on and the tiles are now 40% off, making them $59 per m3. So we paid a deposit and they are happy to hold them until we need them! Awesome!!

One major decision made...many more to come (in good time).

More excitement on the estate :)

The talk on Facebook this morning is that there are some blocks being scraped today. Again I took a drive past after work and sure enough, two lots have been scraped, ready for piering and the slabbing. Lots 11 & 38 are the two lucky blocks.

Some of the neighbours have been laying bets on which street will receive the first slab, and it looks like its a race between Sandringham & Horizon Street. Who will win?

I must say, even though it wasn't our block that was scraped, it was still very exciting to see action in the estate. I am sure there is much to come in the coming weeks!

Settlement Day!!

It started out as a nightmare!  We had settlement booked for 12:30pm today, but as at close of business last night, our loan had not been certified and ready for settlement.

This morning I called our broker who informed me that our file had been pulled from certification and sent back to assessment because of a credit card limit reflecting on J's credit file. The card had been paid in full in 2012 and we requested this account be closed. It certainly wasn't the time to discover that it was still active.

Thanks to Irene at Mortgage Choice Kings Langley, who pulled a lot of strings and managed to get our file back to certification and finalised.

Our conveyancer booked settlement for 2pm! At 2:30pm she informed us that settlement had taken place (thank god!) We are now officially owners of a small patch of Australian soil. How exciting!!

Its time to move onto the construction loan. I am hoping that it doesn't create as many dramas as the land loan.

Red Pegs!!

There was talk today on our Facebook group about some blocks in our estate being measured out and red pegs laid. So I took a drive past on my way home from work and was very excited to see our block was one of the 10 that had been done. It was a sign that things are happening!! I didn't understand the reason for the red pegs but later discovered that the surveyor had laid the pegs out where the land is to be scraped and the slab to be laid.

WOW.... it's all really happening now.

I can only assume that the blocks that received red pegs were those that have already received DA approval for construction prior to land registration. Most of the other blocks have had to go through CDC after registration.

The only delay for us now is the bank. We have to wait for our construction loan to be formally approved and the Authority to Commence Construction letter to be issued by the bank. Hopefully this will happen within the next few weeks. I don't want to wait too much longer. I am pumped to get this thing started!!