Just a recap .....

Last July we signed contracts to purchase a shabby old house on 2 acres near Olinda. We wanted to live somewhere while we built our house. 3 days before we were due to move in I had a letter from the solicitor to say that the house did not have a permit to live in and there were orders for it to be demolished from the council (3 orders in total!). This was not in the section 32 so we managed to pull out of the sale. Luckily we were able to stay in our rental.

However, all of this cost us $3500 for costs etc. The local estate agent/owner knew verbally about the orders but did not tell us! He told me that he 'thought' he has told us but now realises he made a mistake! I went to VCAT 2 months ago but when we all arrived the 'Member" said that the case had been postponed and if we wanted to make use of the time to try and sort this out there and then we could.

To cut a long story short the agent offered me $500 as compensation. When I refused and said I wanted all of the outstanding costs he basically called me a bad parent for upsetting the kids going through VCAT!!!!

I have managed to get copies of letters from the vendors solicitors to the real estate agent stating that the agent 'verbally told the buyers (us) that the house had orders from the council ..''

I have another VCAT date coming up soon ... I'll keep you posted. if anyone wants to know the name of the agent feel free to PM me ...