Proposed legislative attack on "The Castle"???

Barely just over 6 weeks ago, the High Court decided that Parramatta City Council cannot compulsorily acquire land owned by the claimants, R & R Fazzolari Pty Ltd and Mac's Pty Ltd without their approval. Before this decision, the claimants successfully challenged the Council in the Land and Environment Court of NSW. On appeal, Council succeeded in the NSW Court of Appeal

Many in the media at the time likened this battle over the intended compulsory land acquisition by Council as akin to the small guy versus the big guys theme in 1997 "The Castle" movie.

Parramatta City Council proposed to develop a block within its CBD in a Public Private Partnership between Council and 2 developer companies. Council agreed with the developer to compulsorily acquire the claimants' land, then re-sell it to the developer to enable the development to proceed.

The Local Government Act provides that if land is being acquired for the purpose of re-sale, it can't be compulsorily acquired without the owner's approval. Council argued the acquisition was primarily to implement its "Civic Place" project, and not for the purpose of re-selling. The High Court rejected that argument.

It has recently been reported in the Sydney Morning Herald, here and here, that there's now legislation before the NSW Parliament proposing to give councils the right to compulsorily buy private land and transfer it to developers for resale for profit.

The Herald's article reports that Mr Fazzolari, one of the original claimants, to have said "If this happens, no one is safe ... this is not about public purpose - this is about money".

I think it couldn't have been better said!

Go here for more information I've previously posted about compulsory land acquisition in NSW.

Even when your home loan is approved, remain vigilant!

Home buyers are typically advised to ensure their loan is approved before entering the contract, or before their contract becomes unconditional. Many home buyers in NSW sign their purchase contracts at the real estate agent's office. This normally entitles the buyer to a statutory minimum 5 day cooling off period. In this period, buyers normally arrange and finalise their home loan approval, see their lawyer, and arrange for property inspections.

I don't normally see my clients take notes, not that I mind, but most don't. A colleague recently told me a story of purchaser client was informed of their unconditional loan approval. The purchase contract then becomes unconditional. All was proceeding well until the lawyer contacted the bank to check on some documents. The bank advised their client's loan was declined! Not surprisingly, this caused a bit of a stir, panic on the client's part, and lots of stress.

The client was initially advised to obtain written confirmation of their unconditional loan approval. They didn't... they said they trusted their broker and the bank, as they had been so nice to them!!!

The saving grace, amongst the flurry of telephone calls and correspondence, was this buyer/borrower kept notes of her conversations. Using the information from those notes, the lawyer ascertained that after approval was granted, the loan application proceeded within the bank to the next level where it was declined at that second stage. At this point, the bank referred to an old (by about 3 years or so) valuation for the same property, not the valuation obtained a few weeks beforehand. Yes... the bank had made a mistake!

The moral of the story? Making notes certainly assisted this borrower's lawyer to pin down some sort of breakdown that occurred in the bank's internal process and have the bank re-confirm the loan approval.

What I think this story stresses too, is the importance for a home loan borrower to ensure that their verbal unconditional loan approval, for the amount applied for, is confirmed in writing by the lender to the borrower (NOT to the broker).

Our Quality Journey

Visitors to my Alvaro Edwards Solicitors site will notice the Quality Endorsed Practice logo on almost every page. See this page on Quality Endorsed Legal Practice for more information on what this means and how it also benefits my clients.

This post, however, is to proudly announce that SAI Global just completed its annual audit of my practice and again, recommend the continuation of our Legal Best Practice certification under the ISO9001/LAW9000 standard!

Repeating what I've stated previously, this is another incentive for my team's continuing commitment to providing quality management systems for the provision of legal services to my clients.