Can I get a Section 32 please?
A lot of times, when buying property, a simple request isn’t really that simple. Like when you ask for a section 32.
For the un-initiated a section 32 is a document that tells you all the important things about a property, such as the title, its size, location, body corporate if it applies and rates notices amongst other things. It’s pretty important you have a read before auction and to be honest, you can’t even legally make an offer until you sign off saying you have seen it.
So this friend of mine, three weeks out from Auction askes for an electronic copy to be emailed to him. The agent tells him it’s not available yet and he will let him know when it is. Hey, these things happen.
Fast forward a week and the call is made again. This time the section 32 is emailed through. Unfortunately it’s not really the section32, but just the cover pages of a contract of sale. Pretty useless actually. So the agent was called again and he admitted it wasn’t quite ready yet. A few days later the agent sends the section 32 through again, although it was actually addressed to another buyer so he had really just copied and pasted, but at least he sent it through, right? Wrong. Contract of sale only, again.
Anyway, this dance continues another three times over the next two weeks and the agency STILL can’t produce this legal document! After hours and hours and untold emails and requests and an instance where the buyer clearly explains to the selling agent what the section 32 should contain to try to eliminate further dummy emails, the document finally arrives, half a day before Auction! Heaps of time to have it checked by your legal representative before auction…right?
It’s a funny story when we look at it in hindsight, but the fact is a lot of times, a section 32 is delayed to stop any prospective buyers putting offers in before the auction. They do this because the quote range is a long way below the vendor’s reserve on the day. If a potential buyer puts an offer in at the top of the range, or even above that is rejected before auction, the selling agent is supposed to increase the range because the vendor has demonstrated they will not sell at that range. But then that scares potential buyers off. Not saying this was the case here, I just think the solicitor was slow and the agent was a little tardy in the customer service department.
Having said that, the property was passed in at auction on the weekend. The quote range was $380,000- $420,000, the only genuine bid was at $380,000. The last bid, a vendor’s bid was at $420,000…and the vendor’s reserve was at $470,000. That’s a fair way outside the range. And my poor friend has just wasted the last 4 weeks targeting a property that was nowhere near his price range. Not really that funny I guess.
