Hi Jonathan,
Number of MAJOR issues with this policy, but my questions right now relates to your answer to the FAQ "CAN I MANUALLY CHANGE THE SETTLEMENT DATE SUBMITTED BY SRO?"
What do you mean by "predetermined date". Are you referring to our contract settlement date, or are you referring to the date determined by SRO being 30 days from the date of lodgement of the complex assessment? Because if it is the latter, am I right in my understanding then, that should we not settle within 3 business days from the date determined by SRO (even if that is not our contracted settlement date), that the lodgement will have to be re-submitted and another 30 days wait before a new assessment?
For example, what if we lodge a complex duty assessment 45 days in advance of settlement? Assuming of course that by some miracle all of the below variables somehow work in our favour...:
1) The contracted settlement date which is determined by the parties who have NO clue about complex assessments and these requirements, is more than 45 days after signing (noting we have no control over when a purchaser and vendor wishes to settle, but that there are plenty of contract signed up for 30 days or less).
2) That the Vendor (who we are reliant upon to START the form and provide an invitation to us to complete the form and who doesn't know the purchaser's stamping situation) does so with enough time ahead of settlement to have it completed before this cut off time for lodgement. That's not even taking into consideration if the contract has enuring conditions making the contract conditional (eg finance for 14 days or now even longer....) in which case a Vendor would not start work for a purchaser's duty transaction if the contract is at risk of not proceeding to settlement.....
3) That the duties form is signed off by every party to the transaction, which we have NO control over, with longer than this cut off for lodgement before settlement.
If all of this miraculously happens and we submit a complex assessment for lodgement 45 days prior to our contracted settlement date (in which case the SRO would give us a "predetermined" date of 30 days later), are you saying that if we don't settle within 3 business days of whatever date they determine, that we have to re-submit the lodgement again and wait a further 30 days? Or are we able to manually alter the settlement date to match the contract date of 45 days after the lodgement is made?
There are SO many variables to all of this.
Eg, a Vendor who lives in the property who does not know their future address and can't complete the duties form until this is known. OR, any of the parties being away during the contract and unable to sign certain documents or sign the duties form. OR, a mistake being discovered in any party's contact information requiring the form to be edited and therefore re-signed by all parties. OR the complex assessment not being evident until closer to settlement. OR, the Vendor's Conveyancer/Solicitor being slack/too busy and not completing the Vendor's information and sending an invitation to us until it's already too late. OR, a contract being signed for a 30 day settlement. OR, a contract with a 45 days settlement subject to BIR and PIR or a finance clause. etc. etc.
How can the SRO dictate to us that 30 days prior we must submit an assessment if it is to be complex when sometimes we don't even know if a matter is to be complex until much later? All of these factors need to magically fall into place to ensure our purchaser client doesn't cop penalties from the Vendor or, worse yet, lose a 10% deposit because a Vendor serves a rescission notice for failure to settle on time due to us waiting for the SRO to complete an assessment?!
Have you taken Off-The-Plan matters into consideration when you made this determination?! Where a purchaser is given only 14 days notice to settle a matter as determined by the Vendor. If a purchaser of an OTP property has a complex assessment, then what?! Who's going to pay the purchaser's penalties for more than 2 weeks whilst the SRO makes a determination on their payment of duty? What if the Vendor serves a rescission notice (eg. because the value has increased in the time it has been under contract and they know they can sell to someone else) whilst the purchaser is still waiting for a duty assessment and subsequently loses their 10% deposit plus costs?!?!
What happened to a purchaser being entitled to pay stamp duty up to 30 days after settlement? Why couldn't that be an option for complex assessments so as not to put Purchaser's in jeopardy of losing a property and thousands/hundreds of thousands of dollars for something they have no control over and no knowledge of?
