VIC Urban Edge and Property Developer - Get Deposit Back?

My partner and I purchased an apartment from the Urban Edge development in Carnegie last September. After months of pestering the agent as to why the development hasn't started, and continuously being told that 'they have nothing to tell us and it should start soon' we finally found out that the property developer has fallen through and the vendor is trying to sell the development with the sales contracts.


Our 10% deposit/life savings has been stuck for almost 12 months now with no compensation, interest or information as to when construction will start. The agent we purchased from hasn't even had the decency to contact us and let us know what is going on, what they are doing about it or what we can expect. When they finally do respond to our enquiries, we are given empty promises and told to call back in a few weeks and they may have something more to tell us.


All research of the contract and our rights seems to lead to a dead end. The contract states the vendor has 5 years to complete the project. But a verbal agreement was made to us when we purchased that building would commence by December 2014 and most likely finish approx. 12 months later.


Do we have any rights? Is there any way to get our deposit back? We want out of the contract and to get as far away as possible from the horrible service we have received from the agents we purchased from.


If anyone has been in the same situation or has any information that may help us we would greatly appreciate it.


Thanks for your time

 

Hi Victoria, Glad you found us!

The real estate agents service standards are terrible. I can't believe they can just take our money and not contact us for 12 months, it's just disgusting. All they needed to do is send an email to all purchasers saying "really sorry guys, this is what's happened and we are doing everything we can to fix it and we'll keep you in the loop as to what’s going on", it really isn't that difficult!

I also researched the developer and discovered their office was closed and found out that they had some legal problems at the end of 2014. So I asked the agent and was told the same thing about them moving, but I was also just ignored when I asked for the new contact details.

We sent a fake 'contact form' from realestate.com about the apartment that is still for sale and were told via email that completion would be 12-15months from NOW, and they are very close to signing a new deal with a developer. Doesn't help us much, most likely another empty promise.

The whole experience has just been horrible. Our lives and future plans were relying on this investment and have been delayed for who knows how long. Communication makes all the difference when things go wrong but this agency has no decency.

Have you sought any legal advice or researched getting out of the contract at all?

 

Oh! No we have never had any email from them other than replies to ours. I had a feeling we may have been left off.

I'd love to know if your lawyer has any luck if you're in a position to share that information. Understand if you are not.

Thanks

 

Thanks for keeping us in the loop. All we can hope for now is the deal is done and construction will actually be completed within 12-15 months, without any further delays.

Did your lawyer think you had grounds to get out of the contract if it came/comes to that? From what I understand purchasers of off the plan property have practically no rights. Its certainly a hard lesson to learn.