LadyCroft

Hoping it's just kids being silly. We're just trying to enjoy our new life here. It's an older, established area but as everyone says, you never know who really lives next door until you've moved in... When we viewed the place n checked out the area everything seemed so peaceful. Just never came round at 2am for a look! Checked on here and other sites about the place and all seemed good. Like I was saying, its the first issue we've had and hopefully the last. I'm trusting my gut feelings though and don't want to rock the boat. Thanks for replying though. I reread my post and thought it sounded a bit fake! Wish it was.

Thanks for replying. Yes, we probably will ignore it this time, I just needed to get it off my mind on here cos I'm driving my husband mad going on about taking them and knocking on the neighbours door "You seem to have left your dinner hanging over our fence" LOL. Yes, neighbours around are fine and keep themselves to themselves. They've been fine next door too apart from what I said above. Just hoping it's a one off... Just feeling a bit sad that we've emigrated and bought a house over budget only to have something stupid like this happen. It's just been a really hard year this past year and I'm trying to look forwards to 2016 only for a few things to have already gone wrong and now this is the proverbial straw. Just getting to me.

We just bought our first property in Oz and have been trying to settle into our new area. Everyone's fine and things are OK. The only thing bugging us was the house next door always has random cars on their front grass n nature strip and comings n goings all night long. Their kids often watch us over the back fence but I just thought they're just having a nosy at the new neighbours. So what. Then my toddler pointed out "lizards" in our garden on the end of a fishing line and kind of plastic pole. It's a bunch of dead rats hanging over our fence. How disgusting. I was thinking of returning them but to be honest they seem kind of intimidating. My husband says maybe the kids thought it would be funny n if I react they'll get a kick out of it n do it again... I'm just sick. How horrible. Wishing we'd never bought here after being so excited that we actually got to buy our own place. What can I do without causing a neighbour war? We've only lived here a few wks n done nothing that could have annoyed the neighbours to make them want to do this?

I am getting the feeling that it would be best to hold out for a proper house with no body corporate stuff to deal with. The contract states we have to go with the body corporate for building insurance and get our own contents insurance but having looked a little at strata insurance, I can see what you mean here. The other reply re building insurance not being anything to do with it is wrong in this case. I am feeling my feet cold about all this now. I just have to convince the rest of the family!!! Thanks for the replies, I am very grateful to you as this has raised a few issues I was completely oblivious to. You are all fantastic. Thank you again. PS We have always been used to 2 storey houses - even if it was a villa type in the UK we had downstairs living and upstairs sleeping with WC down and bath up as well as a taken for granted big garden. Not in such a nice area though!!!!! No way. I love House 1 myself and see A LOT of potential. I am just not sure we will get it as someone else is sure to outbid us again. I just know I will get "but House 2 had x,y,z....." even though it would be so much better not to deal with all the extra bother that appears to come with a townhouse/unit/apartment. The search continues but with further wisdom thanks to you all!!!

What is "Strata"? Can you not get building insurance on a townhouse? What do you have to do to get building and contents. Good job I asked for help on here! I had no idea. Obviously we would go over all this with the solicitor before signing a contract but I had no idea about the issues with townhouses...

Thanks for the replies. That's the problem - we have been watching the house prices in the areas we wanted to live go up and up over the past year and now they are out of our budget where last year we could have afforded one but didn't know if we wanted to move there or break a lease. Didn;t realise how fast prices would rise. You are right re the body corporate thing. Never had to deal with anything like that before so don't really know the ins and outs. The fees are around $2000 a year. Will find out who the company is and look into things. It is hard.

We are having a problem. We have been looking for a house to buy in our budget and have had such a hard time as most have ended up selling for just over our max so we have missed out. We are now (typically) in the unlikely situation where we have 2 houses we can make an offer on so must choose now. House 1 - hearts ruling heads a bit here but it is smaller than House 2. Detached single storey house has 3 bedrooms, 1 lounge area, kitchen/dining room, en suite to master bed, bathroom, laundry, double garage and small but useable half decked/half grass garden. Other houses far enough away that you can't shake hands through the windows. House 2 - Townhouse(unit/townhouse??) next door to a single storey unit attached to the left side, double garage attaches to next townhouse along. Body corporate, shared driveway to around 10 other houses but each has own garage. 3 beds, upstairs bathroom, 2 living areas downstairs, kitchen, downstairs WC, laundry, pantry, small back garden with half concrete half grass but slightly bigger area than House 1. Any advice on what might be best and why? I don't really like having body corporate and shared driveway but the house is much bigger than any detached house we have looked at so far (established house rather than new build). Just wanting any opinions or advice on whether a slightly bigger townhouse with body corporate is better or not as desireable as smaller detached house. We are trying to think of it as somewhere for our little family to live rather than a potential investment that we might sell in 5 years... If it was for potential it would def be House 1 but House 2 is more practical. Oh, both in the same area just House 1 one closer to the central area, House 2 is 5 minutes down the road from House 1. Thanks so much for any advice on this one

Wow, thanks for such a detailed reply. Yes, I am not sure about the issues that might arise from a new build off plan and time delays etc or whatever else might happen that we have no idea about. I have heard from a neighbour who is building in a nearby new estate that the land title (sorry - not sure of the correct terminology but you prob know what I mean) was delayed at first because they discovered endangered frogs then bandicoots then something else followed by issues with Vic roads re getting an intersection to enter the estate which has caused them problems with financing. Puts me off a bit... Thanks for the info!

Our mortgage broker was advising us to take advantage of the First Home Owner Grant and look at a recently completed new build or buy a house & land package. Question is, how do you go about getting a house & land package? Do you just go around the sales offices where they are building and look at the display houses n get info that way? Or do you go directly to the builders websites and look for "house & Land"? We know where we would like but don't have a clue how to actually go about buying a house & land package. Also, how does your mortgage offer cover paying for house & land package? We have no extra money so need to avoid any other costs like we have heard people talking about paying extra as the land took longer to title. Do we make sure we get a Turn Key package??? I am soooo lost. We have been saving a deposit since we arrived here over a year ago. The house prices where we have been looking have risen more than our ability to save already and we have been priced out of the market in the areas we were looking. Sorry but I don't want to buy a house in Frankston (can't afford Frankston South now either for what we need and can't afford a "doer upper").

Hi JohnSmile We got short term (3 months actually) furnished rental in Kew which meant we still had access to trams into the city but weren't right in the CBD. It was still expensive and the rental company had other furnished rentals further out but you would maybe need a car if you were further out (Glen Waverley/Mount Waverley). They seem to get good and bad reviews of Tripadvisor but our experience was fine. You can always check the tripadvisor reviews for the specific apartments or houses you have your eye on. http://www.parkavenue.com.au/ We tried to get a rental through airbnb and stayz.com.au but the problem we had was that you would request the dates you wanted the rental, waited for them to contact the owner and then they would let us know it was already booked. Since we were in the UK and the owners are in Oz, it would take days or sometimes longer for them to get back to us and in the meantime we would just be hanging on waiting as you have to give your credit card details to book in advance if the owner says "OK!". That is why we ended up just booking the apartment in Kew as it meant it was done and we got confirmation. Peace of mind. We didn't have much time between unexpectedly selling our house after nothing selling in our area for past couple of years and our visas expiring though, so we only had about 1 month to organise getting a rental in Australia. Good luck with it all - you'll get good advice on here.

Hi We are looking for a mortgage broker who could preferably do home visits (Cranbourne/Clyde area) rather than have us come to an office (if this happens here - I don't know) as we need help getting a loan that will actually allow us to buy a house. I can't believe how much the prices have gone up in the past year and our saving for a bigger deposit is not keeping up. Needing someone who can really guide us through it all. Fed up renting knowing we couldn't afford a house where we rent anymore. Thanks in advance for your help, as always.

Thanks for replying. Yes, I know you're right. I am going to go back. I think maybe its still the bad news making my brain foggy and I don't really want to face up to it all. I hope it didn't sound like I wasn't planning on going back to see him. I guess I wanted to see what those of you have been through this did. So thanks. I see now that I'll just have to get my act together.

I know I am not on here very often any more but I am looking for some help and advice. My Dad is in his 80's and has always been very fit and healthy. He broke his arm a few years back and apart from that he was always years younger than his actual age. Very independent, loved being out and about, always helping everyone and never a minute to himself. Well, time catches us with everyone I guess and he has been very ill with various infections etc that have turned out to be due to cancer that they seemed to have misdiagnosed. He is very ill but it is unclear if it is short or long term. Everyone is telling me I don't need to head back over just now even though the first thing you want to do is jump on the plane and go home. The stone cold reality of it all is that I can not afford to go back just now as we only arrived a year ago and it would be too expensive to go for a visit and then have to go back again in the near future if he gets worse. It makes me feel sick to say that. Who wouldn't be able to go and visit their sick parent??? I feel so bad. It is reality though. Sorry if this is disjointed but I am really stressing at the moment. I feel very guilty for leaving him now. Apparently it's the case where at the ripe old age he is, he could live on for years even with cancer but he is very weak and not looking after himself properly as he has become depressed because of the diagnosis. I have lots of family members close to him who are always visiting him and trying their best to help him. I think there is a feeling of resentment towards me because I seem to be over here hiding away from it all while they are in the midst of everything and have no break from it all. I feel terrible. My poor Dad. I just feel sick and worried and guilty. I wish none of this was happening. It was hard enough to leave him in the first place as he was sure he was never going to see us again but I was saying we would be back for a holiday in a few years as soon as we get ourselves back on our feet and settled here. Again from the logical and sombre side of things, our visas have expired and we already needed a RRV (we got for 3 months) to validate our baby's visa when it was granted after we arrived in Australia. How easy is it to get a further RRV under my circumstances? I don't know when I should apply for one as I have no idea when I might need to use it - will need to use it. I just can't believe this is happening. Thanks for reading to anyone who has any words of advice. I know some people back home have been saying that it doesn't mean it's the end for him and all that but my close family seem to be a bit more pessimistic about everything so I am not sure if they know more than they are letting on but they do say there is no point in coming back just yet as there is nothing I could do just now and I should wait until they know more about the situationl.

My husband is still waiting for his tax refund. Accountant had to do it on paper as it was the first time he had done one. When he enters his tfn no on the ATO tracking search thingy it says they received his paper application but not to contact them again until end of December. Accountant was convinced he would have his refund in 3 weeks as they usually have 30 days or so to get the money into your account. He was hoping the refund would be in before Christmas (obviously) but it is looking slim now. How long did it take to get your first tax refund if it was done on paper?

The more I talk to them, the more it complicates everything.