Rhonda Bracey: At Random

I took yesterday and today off work to finalise the packing in preparation for the move down south on Monday. Settlement is booked in for Tuesday. So you could say the pressure’s on!

Way back in December I spoke to our mortgage broker about security for the other loans we have now that the main asset is being sold. I knew the bank would want their pound of flesh, either in repayment of some of these loans, or the Title for them – they won’t leave loans floating out there without security against an asset. He checked with the bank (Westpac in case you’re interested) and was told at least twice that all was fine. And he informed me of that. Meantime, Settlement was booked by the bank, which was even more ‘evidence’ that everything was OK at the bank’s end.

So you can imagine my surprise, anger, and panic when we got a phone call on Wednesday evening, telling us that Settlement may be delayed because those looking at these things in the bank’s Mortgage Processing Centre realised that we’d have unsecured loans. Well, hello!!! As I told this guy, we’d confirmed all this with the broker way back when and all was meant to be OK. I listed the other properties we own with approximate values, and gave him the contact details for our mortgage broker. Then I sent off a very quick email to the broker, and we went out to dinner, arriving late because of this call. (Like, who calls someone at 6:30pm on Valentine’s Day evening????)

Anyhow, we forgot about the call during dinner with our very long term friends as we were talking about the move and life from here on in, reminiscing about old times, and saying our goodbye’s for now.

Yesterday (Thursday) we’re beetling around doing some last minute stuff in between packing, and we get a phone call from the boss guy at the Mortgage Processing Centre. To cut a long story short, for Settlement to occur on Tuesday and not be delayed, we have to put a (very big) sum of money into a Term Deposit with them for up to 2 weeks while they get valuations done on the other properties and get Title to them. (BTW, the bank has known the date of Settlement since December, but chose to call us 5 days before!)

This means that the lump sum we intended putting into my husband’s Superannuation scheme will be split in two – half on Settlement, the other half into this Term Deposit with it being available after some 2 weeks (yeah – try a month!). Oh, and the bank said we’d get the interest on this deposit – how kind of them – but we’d have to pay $165 each for the valuations on the other three properties. They screw you every which way…

That’s the upshot. But it took 4 hours to sort out yesterday! 27-page faxes going to and from, numerous long distance phone calls, a trip to the bank to get the documents witnessed, faxed, and the originals sent to the Mortage Processing Centre in Adelaide. Phone calls to and from the mortgage broker, contacting the Settlement Agent to get a revised Disbursement of Funds Authority. And of course the old thermal fax machine ran out of paper in the middle of this, so I had to go find another roll in the boxes stacked in the garage… (don’t ask…)

We sure didn’t need this! We’re furious at the bank’s incompetence; the mortgage broker is furious at both that and the information he took on faith; his contact at the bank reckons the MPC people are a mob of d***heads. Not that that changes anything. The reality is that the bank needs security – I understand that, which is why I queried it back in December and why my mortgage broker followed it up. But for them to drop this on us a few days before Settlement just reeks of gross incompetence and lack of ‘ownership’ of the case by the bank. All these valuations etc. could have been done in January and we wouldn’t be in this situation.

Bloody banks (which is not what I said, but I think you get the picture)! Today’s the last business day before we move, so here’s hoping everything is sorted now.