Brisbane - The start of a New Life

Nightmare Start!!!

The thought of moving interstate was daunting at first but one that the whole family was looking forward to, we planned everything to the last detail and with the benefit of hindsight probably didn't allow enough time for other peoples stuff-ups.

Our old place in Lexton Street

I got a phone call at around 11.15am EDST on Friday the 14th of December from our Ballarat Conveyancers letting me know that the sale of Lexton Street had not gone ahead. We were not sure why but in the end it didn't matter because the settlement of Olivia Place had already been canned due to an error on behalf of the vendor. It turns out that head office had sent our titles docos to Colac branch instead of Ballarat.

So we were just about to hit Brisbane, no house settlement at either end, nowhere to stay and all our worldy possessions due to arrive on Saturday but no house to put them in. OK so we tried to negotiate with the Vendors of Olivia Place to allow us access to the property - no luck, they would not let us in.

At this stage I have to say that the people we had engaged to act on our behalf Balben Property Transfers, Littles Lawyers and Ben Hando at the Commonwealth bank have been sensational for us and worked so hard to help us get sorted.

Moments after being told of the Lexton Street settlement issues Karren called me to let me know that negotiations had been made to allow settlement of Olivia place Friday afternoon - PANIC STATIONS. I was pinging, we now couldn't settle Olivia Place because there would be no funds from the sale of Lexton Street. AAAAARGGGH.

Our new abode in Olivia Place

Long story short, Ben Hando, Sam at Balben and Sharynne at Littles got us into Olivia Place at 5.15pm on Friday afternoon, and both houses were eventually settled.

Now what can I say about the Vendors, unfortunately this blog is not the place to accurately describe them using the terms I would prefer. But I will summarise a few things they have done to indicate what sort of people they are...

1. Tried to make us pay $140 for bottled gas that they purchased just after we signed contracts, that they wouldn't get to use.
2. Wouldn't allow us access to the house even though it was their fault it didn't settle, then reluctantly said we could have access to the house but only if we paid $150/day rent. yeah right eff off!!!
3. Left the house in a filthy dirty state, it was putrid, they also left all their rubbish in boxes at the back door, including filling the recycle bin with rubbish. 80kgs of crap went to the tip, thankfully BCC gave us some vouchers for the tip.
4. They demanded that there be a new fence put up and negotiated with the neighbour to make this happen before the house was sold but then refused to pay him their share because they were selling!

Now that we are sort of settled, most of the boxes have been unpacked, we have a few days to acclimatise before driving south to Sydney for Christmas.