Lousy Advice Can Be Costly

Consumers are again warned about "throw away" legal advice from estate agents.

A client of ours has just called to ask whether the estate agent was correct in advising him to sign a Contract Note, even though the date for payment of the deposit expired 4 days ago!

The helpful estate agent advised our client that the deposit payment date would not matter, as the vendor would understand. (According to the client, the estate agent didn't want to "deface the contract" by changing the neatly printed details.)

PROBLEM: The finance condition stipulates that in order to end the contract due to failure of finance, the purchaser must not be in default under any other condition of the contract.

OUR ADVICE: The deposit must be paid by the due date, as failure to pay on time constitutes a default. In other words, if he had followed the estate agent's advice, our client would probably have lost his finance condition, and would have to proceed with the purchase whether he had finance or not!

Always get proper legal advice before signing anything.