Off-the-plan disaster serves as a warning about contracts

By Nicole Pedersen-McKinnon
Updated June 17 2017 - 9:43am, first published May 30 2017 - 7:21pm

Dear Nicole,
I don't know what to do. Yesterday a good friend of mine confessed she had bought an off-plan apartment in Brisbane 18 months ago because "she just wouldn't leave me alone, in the end it was easier to just buy the damn flat". My friend Jan is 60, has a very spotty income, works incredibly hard, and has a couple of small properties bought over the years with friends living in them. This is a whole new ballgame. She said the agent kept phoning, wanting to take her out for coffee -
the words she used were "badgering", "hounding". Jan is having sleepless nights about this, and the final straw is that she has to now sign the mortgage, take over the flat, and it has been valued at 10 per cent less than 18 months ago. She couldn't get a mortgage right now to save her life, so the agent sent her to a company who have given her a variable rate of more than 6 per cent. She has spent almost $50,000 (her savings) on a deposit, and is now liable for a $450,000 mortgage. Can you help? - Serena, Sydney

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