I am seeking anyone's help in understanding any avenues to seek compensation for a Rent to Own contract failure.
In summary, we were the buyers who followed everything to the T, the owner went into bankruptcy and we got kicked out losing all our money after 12 months paying option fees, rent, all house ongoing costs/repairs, further investments in the house (tinting/landscaping) and a deposit.
The main reason this happened was due to the vendor finance agent who broke a laws about disclosure, was not paying the owner the mortgage payments on time or house rates (or the full amounts), did not insure the home (we paid extra for that) and a large number of practices that lead to the bank closing in on two properties. This vendor representative had all the money paying in to him (we paid a real estate agent who just transferred the lot to him every week unbeknown to us) and two separate contracts (one for us, one with owner).
The contracts had a lot of gaps (found after the fact) and the biggest problem was that the house was marketed (with false valuation) at $950,000 - but had a mortgage towards $800,000 (falsely declared as $550,000) and the property value itself by the bank was under $700,000 which to this day they cannot sell. The vendor finance agent was extremely dishonest about all the information on the property, the owner's finances (loan ratio was about 96% over all her properties, with many empty) and their was NEVER a chance that after 4 years we would have been able to finance the remaining property purchase with a bank - as the price was extremely inflated over it's true valuation (not even taken into account the last 2 years diving prices).
So we have been out of the property 12 months and couldn't cope after it all with chasing the vendor agent as he just took off to WA and couldn't be served papers.
I have since found he is still trading for the past year selling Rent to Own properties in QLD including advertising the same owner's house next door (and the same $200k + inflation price). This property also fell under with a Rent to Own for another buyer at the same time.
I spoke with ASIC who are interested in class actions only and not one individual case, for which they would only consider disciplinary action but offer no compensation to us. I spoke to OFT who told me that they don't cover vendor finance and only real estate property agents. I researched QCAT and I am confused if we qualify there as it really doesn't fit in their areas of application. I event followed the Vendor Finance Credit association (or other such name) and they again would review the case but only look to cancel his licence and cannot order compensation.
This situation put us $35k loss, for which we are still paying a personal loan (deposit)....plus huge moving costs and has ruined our financial future for the next few years. We are seeking just the $10k deposit to be returned so we can pay out the loans. We have accepted the loss of the option fees, investments in the property and other outgoings (which all went in his pocket).
We don't believe it possible or worthwhile to claim against the owner (broke and didn't see majority of the money), the real estate agent managing the property (followed all responsibilities given the orders from owner/vendor agent and complied with RTA legislation)....so this vendor agent is our only real path for compensation.
Given we are broke and have so much conflicting information from lawyers we contacted, we cannot just continue to go see lawyers for advice who waste our money.
We need someone who understands this particular type of home buying to state factually where we should go next to seek a court hearing in QLD if it is possible at all.
We are happy to do the leg work ourselves once we understand the right path. Of course we have all the documentation including a diary, ready for building our case.
Can anyone give suggestions ?
In summary, we were the buyers who followed everything to the T, the owner went into bankruptcy and we got kicked out losing all our money after 12 months paying option fees, rent, all house ongoing costs/repairs, further investments in the house (tinting/landscaping) and a deposit.
The main reason this happened was due to the vendor finance agent who broke a laws about disclosure, was not paying the owner the mortgage payments on time or house rates (or the full amounts), did not insure the home (we paid extra for that) and a large number of practices that lead to the bank closing in on two properties. This vendor representative had all the money paying in to him (we paid a real estate agent who just transferred the lot to him every week unbeknown to us) and two separate contracts (one for us, one with owner).
The contracts had a lot of gaps (found after the fact) and the biggest problem was that the house was marketed (with false valuation) at $950,000 - but had a mortgage towards $800,000 (falsely declared as $550,000) and the property value itself by the bank was under $700,000 which to this day they cannot sell. The vendor finance agent was extremely dishonest about all the information on the property, the owner's finances (loan ratio was about 96% over all her properties, with many empty) and their was NEVER a chance that after 4 years we would have been able to finance the remaining property purchase with a bank - as the price was extremely inflated over it's true valuation (not even taken into account the last 2 years diving prices).
So we have been out of the property 12 months and couldn't cope after it all with chasing the vendor agent as he just took off to WA and couldn't be served papers.
I have since found he is still trading for the past year selling Rent to Own properties in QLD including advertising the same owner's house next door (and the same $200k + inflation price). This property also fell under with a Rent to Own for another buyer at the same time.
I spoke with ASIC who are interested in class actions only and not one individual case, for which they would only consider disciplinary action but offer no compensation to us. I spoke to OFT who told me that they don't cover vendor finance and only real estate property agents. I researched QCAT and I am confused if we qualify there as it really doesn't fit in their areas of application. I event followed the Vendor Finance Credit association (or other such name) and they again would review the case but only look to cancel his licence and cannot order compensation.
This situation put us $35k loss, for which we are still paying a personal loan (deposit)....plus huge moving costs and has ruined our financial future for the next few years. We are seeking just the $10k deposit to be returned so we can pay out the loans. We have accepted the loss of the option fees, investments in the property and other outgoings (which all went in his pocket).
We don't believe it possible or worthwhile to claim against the owner (broke and didn't see majority of the money), the real estate agent managing the property (followed all responsibilities given the orders from owner/vendor agent and complied with RTA legislation)....so this vendor agent is our only real path for compensation.
Given we are broke and have so much conflicting information from lawyers we contacted, we cannot just continue to go see lawyers for advice who waste our money.
We need someone who understands this particular type of home buying to state factually where we should go next to seek a court hearing in QLD if it is possible at all.
We are happy to do the leg work ourselves once we understand the right path. Of course we have all the documentation including a diary, ready for building our case.
Can anyone give suggestions ?