Flat Chat Strata Forum Living in strata Current Page

  • This topic has 11 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 4 years ago by .
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  • #49144
    Miranda
    Flatchatter

      I bought  my new flat in NSW on 17 Dec 2019 and part of the settlement papers I signed included a Strata Search which clearly states No Arrears for my flat.

      Now I’ve received my first Strata fee invoice, which shows Arrears of some $500, unpaid by my vendor.

      On querying this with the Strata Manager he just rudely says I have to pay,  no discussion.

      My conveyancer (solicitor) said they have contacted the vendor’s s solicitor who is chasing it up with him  with no response so far.  She also said that although in the Settlement papers it shows No Arrears this popped  up 3 days after I signed  and that the SM should have indicated on the Settlement  papers that there was a fee notice coming up to be paid by the vendor   Obviously if I’d known this I would have delayed the purchase until they were paid.

      What I’m wondering is are the signed Settlement papers legally binding?

      Is the SM required to try and chase the debt themselves.

      If it should happen that the vendor won’t pay the debt (likely) who is responsible to pay the debt?   The OC, me?  I’ve done a lot of searching but can’t find anything to address this.

      [NB: This post was originally infested with leftover coding from a copy and paste (probably from an Apple device).  That’s 10 minutes of my life I won’t get back, cleaning it up.  A little consideration please! JimmyT]

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    • #49150
      Jimmy-T
      Keymaster

        This is not the strata manager’s responsibility. Their job is to collect the money from the lot owner, whoever that might be at the time of the bill being issued.

        It’s certainly not the owners corporation either. It has absolutely nothing to do with them.

        [Actually, on reading the post below, I realised it obviously does have something to do with the OC since it’s money owed to them.  My bad. But the point I was trying to make is that either the vendor or the purchaser owes the money and it’s just a matter of establishing which it is – JimmyT]

        The responsibility either lies with the conveyancer, if they failed to pick up on the unpaid amount, or the vendor who made a false statement about the state of the levies payment.

        Or there is another possibility – there was a pro-rata charge for the levies for the period that you owned the flat which fell in the previous quarter covered by the levies. The Vendor would have paid their share and the balance would then fall to you as arrears.

        Have a look at these posts and see if they ring any bells.

        The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
        #49165
        kaindub
        Flatchatter

          In NSW your conveyancer should have asked the OC for. Sect 184 certificate. It’s the only official statement of what’s owing on a lot.

          If the Sect 184 shows no money owing, then it’s the OC problem. They can’t collect any money from you because they made the mistake.

          If you are relying on  strata search or the vendor for a report on any arrears, then that’s your problem and the OC is entitled to their money.

          I have personally had a situation where my solicitor got it wrong. Fortunately for me I was able to rectify the mistake.

          #49169
          Banned
          Blocked

            I agree with kaindub,

            It looks like this settlement has gone through in hurry before Christmas and the 184 was not ready or not obtained before settlement.

            In this case the op will have to get their conveyancer to chase the vendor for any adjustments based  on the 184. Vendors solicitor should have no issues with that.

            On the other hand, if the 184 is wrong then the strata manager will have remove the overdue fees.

            What a mess!

             

            #49175
            Miranda
            Flatchatter
            Chat-starter

              <p style=”text-align: center;”>[NB: This post was originally infested with leftover coding from a copy and paste (probably from an Apple device).  That’s 10 minutes of my life I won’t get back, cleaning it up.  A little consideration please! JimmyT]</p>
               

              Jimmy i have no idea what  this means.   I don’t have any  Apple devices and  use  Win 10.  I don’t know what   left over coding is.  I typed my question on my lap top then sent it.    There was no intention to be inconsiderate so please allow me some slack.

               

              #49177
              Jimmy-T
              Keymaster

                Apologies.  That’s my Apple allergy showing. This is what ‘leftover coding’ means from your previous post (and it’s in your current post too):

                User: Miranda
                Topic: Who pays Vendor’s arrears debt
                Content: <div dir=”ltr” data-setdir=”false”>I bought  my new flat in NSW on 17 Dec 2019 and part of the settlement papers I signed included a Strata Search which clearly states No Arrears for my flat.</div>
                <div dir=”ltr”></div>
                <div></div>
                <div dir=”ltr”>Now I’ve received my first Strata fee invoice, which shows Arrears of some $500, unpaid by my vendor.</div>
                <div dir=”ltr”></div>
                <div dir=”ltr”>On querying this with the Strata Manager he just rudely says I have to pay,  no discussion.</div>
                <div dir=”ltr”></div>
                <div dir=”ltr”>My conveyancer (solicitor) said they have contacted the vendor’s s solicitor who is chasing it up with him  with no response so far.  She also said that although in the Settlement papers it shows No Arrears this popped  up 3 days after I signed  and that the SM should have indicated on the Settlement  papers that there was a fee notice coming up to be paid by the vendor   Obviously if I’d known this I would have delayed the purchase until they were paid.</div>
                <div dir=”ltr”></div>
                <div dir=”ltr”>What I’m wondering is</div>
                <div dir=”ltr”></div>
                <div dir=”ltr” data-setdir=”false”>are the signed Settlement papers legally binding?</div>
                <div dir=”ltr”></div>
                <div dir=”ltr” data-setdir=”false”>Is the SM required to try and chase the debt themselves .</div>
                <div dir=”ltr” data-setdir=”false”></div>
                <div dir=”ltr” data-setdir=”false”>If it should happen that the vendor won’t pay the debt (likely) who is responsible to pay the debt?   The OC,    me?  I’ve done a lot of searching but can’t find anything to address this.</div>
                <div dir=”ltr” data-setdir=”false”></div>
                <div dir=”ltr” data-setdir=”false”>Thanks</div>
                <div dir=”ltr”></div>
                <div dir=”ltr”></div>
                <div dir=”ltr”></div>

                If any computer literate Flatchatters out there can see what’s wrong here – and maybe it’s something at this end –  I’d love to know because it’s obviously not Miranda’s intention to send it in this form.

                Meanwhile I recommend you type directly into the Forum or save your posts as .txt or .rtf files before copying and posting.

                 

                The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
                #49180
                Miranda
                Flatchatter
                Chat-starter

                  Oh that’s awful Jimmy .  I would not have blamed you for not printing my post, it was good of you to fix it.  .  I do hope it doesn’t happen here as I am typing directly into the forum,   my knowledge of such things is minus zero I’m afraid.

                  #49182
                  Jimmy-T
                  Keymaster

                    No worries, Miranda.  And what you typed here was fine.

                    The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
                    #49178
                    Banned
                    Blocked

                      The markup code “HTML” inserts can be caused by a number of factors, ms word can markup text with html and some browsers do the same to preserve formatting.

                      You are using a WYSIWYG editor on this website that requires html code markup the text so it displays properly.

                      The solution for the frontend of you website is to have your web devs apply a code removal/cleanup plugin to the text editor and configure it properly.

                      For the backend (server side) you will also need to strip unwanted html markup using kess or htmlawed.

                      You can correctly assume that most users will be clueless to these technicalities and won’t even realise they are inserting extra markup.

                      Thats what WYSIWYG editors are for –  What you see is what you get. This requires markup in the form of html code to display text formatting properly in the web browser.

                      #49185
                      Jimmy-T
                      Keymaster

                        Yet another reason for me to get my act together and switch  back to Simple:Press which I used to have on this website until it started crashing on me (more than a year ago).  It seems to be working fine now, though. Just a matter of time and money to get back to where we were before.

                        The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
                        #49189
                        Banned
                        Blocked

                          You don’t need to switch back, you just need to do some work on this text area plugin and have it configured properly to do what you want it to do.

                          In the meantime, this is quite easy for you to fix as admin, simply do the following:

                          1. Copy the entire post into notepad. That will remove all the users  html formatting.

                          2.  Copy the text from notepad and paste it back into the textarea and save the post.

                          ps you dont need to publish this just trying to help a little, sorry about the typos.

                          #49194
                          Jimmy-T
                          Keymaster

                            Thanks for the tip.

                            But I will proceed with the migration to Simple:Press because it’s a nicer interface for readers, easier to use, and there are a bunch of people at the end of their website who look after it for a living – BBPress (which is what we’re using now) is too hard to fix, especially when someone comes up with a handy plugin then wanders off to do something else after a year or so and it goes out of date.

                            For instance, when I tried to split this conversation off to a separate topic, it refuses and comes up with “A variable mismatch has been detected”  when I go to the BBPress help page, there are others with similar problems but no solution offered after 18 months!

                            Changing horses is definitely on my ever-lengthening to-do list

                            The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
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