QLD Adding name to land title - help!

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Legalnaive

Active Member
4 July 2018
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Hi,
Last year a friend and I purchased a block of land. As she was dealing with the lawyers etc her name was put on the title - and the bank mortgage as interest.

This year we bought the adjoining block with both names on the title.

We had surveyors doing the work to amalgamate the blocks so we could build a house on them and it couldn't be done as my name wasn't on the first title.

Due to continuous bank errors and their taking three months to register the second title we are already months behind starting construction and when we contacted the solicitor we were told it would be about six weeks to get my name added to the second title.

I thought I'd do it myself and hoped to get it done quicker but bureacracy doesn't make it simple. Every time I contact Natural Resources and State Revenue I get different advice about the forms to fill in. Now I've discovered I have to get a real estate agent to do a market valuation of the block ($88) because State Revenue won't accept another department's (Natural Resources) valuation. This adds a week to the process. As we've already had to pay the full cost of having power and electricity put in to the front of the blocks the value would now have significantly increased as the land was cheap due to these not being there.

So, is it right that to transfer the title I put the other person as transferor and both of us as transferee - Joint Tenants?

Does that mean we have to pay the full stamp duty of the block again, and probably more due to the increased market value of the land since last year?

Is the consideration the market value of the land?

And as the bank has combined the loans for the land with the one for the house - do they also have to be involved in this process? (We are worried about how many months this will add to the process again) They are already on the title as having an interest and we are both mortgagees for the block.

I live 1700 kms away from Qld so having to send forms backwards and forwards by post to the two departments is probably going to add a lot of time too.

Thanks in advance.
 

Rod

Lawyer
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27 May 2014
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Get a lawyer if quicker is better. Seems like DIY is costing you more money than you are trying to save.
 

Legalnaive

Active Member
4 July 2018
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31
Get a lawyer if quicker is better. Seems like DIY is costing you more money than you are trying to save.
Hi Rod, it isn't money we are trying to save, but time. The lawyer said at this time of the year it would take six weeks for them to do it. I was hoping I could do it faster.
These constant delays are impacting on a lot of other people, including the surveyors and builders.
 

Rob Legat - SBPL

Lawyer
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16 February 2017
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Odds are you won't be able to get it done faster. There are a few steps, as you've somewhat become aware of from the contents of your original post. It's not a hugely difficult task, but it is precise and requires things to happen in the required order.

To answer your questions:
- The proprietors of the two lots will have to match exactly to allow for amalgamation. I'd suggest the tenancy (i.e. joint tenants or tenants in common) will likely also need to match. If it is tenants in common - make sure the shares match as well. I'm not 100% on that, but it would make it easier;

- Yes, you'll have to pay transfer duty (stamp duty) - but not the full amount. The duty will be payable on valuation of the land, but since you're only transferring part of it the duty will be factored by that fraction. On the issue of valuation, please note the Department of Natural Resources and Mines 'valuation' (which is actually from the Valuer General) is likely to be the unimproved capital value. This is not market value - which is what transfer duty is calculated on.

- The consideration can be whatever you want it to be. This is independent of the amount on which duty is paid because the parties are related.

- Yes, it's likely the bank will need to be involved. I think, from memory, they don't need to consent to the amalgamation - but they may need to remove the existing mortgage to allow the property to be transferred and then lodge a new mortgage. I could be wrong on that.