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The following is a true story:

PART 1

Nick was from Yugoslavia. He came to Australia and started working in the mines. On a trip to the Gold Coast he visited the Currumbin valley and was struck by the beauty of the area and the similarity to his homeland.

On the trip he found a lifestyle block for sale that looked right up the valley to the mountains.

It was a stretch financially but he bought the land and returned to the mines.

He worked literally every day without 1 day off for 5 years in the mines and finally had saved enough money to build on his land and semi retire.

He had kept himself going for 5 years by having a picture of his land and view above his bed and he couldn’t wait to see it in the flesh again.

He arrived on the Coast on Christmas day and drove up to his valley and up onto his land to enjoy his “homecoming”.

As he drove up onto his land he saw something he couldn’t believe. There was a house built on HIS land, and people appeared to be living in it!!!!!

He marched up to the front door disturbing kids opening presents etc. and demanded to know what the hell they were doing on his land and where did this ^#*(@%#* house come from.

PART 2.

Bill and Jenny loved the Currumbin area and when a lifestyle block was advertised they rushed to view it. The agent met them on site and showed them the building site etc. with fabulous views to the mountains. They fell in love and bought it.
Their solicitor completed the paperwork, the bank gave them a construction loan and over time they built their dream home and moved in.

One Christmas morning there was a very loud knock at the door and they were confronted not by the grandparents but a rabid foreigner screaming at them for being on his land??

PART 3.

Mr Smith decided to sell his lifestyle block and rung a local agent to list it. He described the property and the agent drove up to have a look. Finding the described block of land he duly listed the property. He probably did a title search to check the lot and DP number but never bothered to get a copy of the local plan and check the physical boundaries.

Bill and Jenny’s lawyer advised them in a standard letter to ensure they had the property surveyed and offered to arrange this for them. Bill and Jenny, like many of us would, ignored this request from their solicitor.

Bill and Jenny’s bank assumed that as they were good upstanding clients with a good solicitor that everything was in order and compliant, so lent them the money to settle the land and build their home.

So what happened?? What went wrong?? And how did it end??

The agent had put a sign up on the land he had been asked to sell. Only problem was he actually put a sign up on Nicks land instead of the block he had been engaged to sell.

Because Nick was in the mines for 5 years and never visited the land he never saw the incorrect sign. Had the agent looked at a plan he would have seen and corrected his mistake.

The bank assumed the property had been surveyed when it hadn’t so they lent money to Bill and Jenny to settle the land, which was actually next door to where they thought they were buying and then lent them money to build a house on someone else’s land. Their only security was the land that Bill and Jenny didn’t know they owned and a house worth nothing because it was built illegally on someone else’s land.

Can you imagine the bank manager on being advised of this?? ” We lent you a million dollars and you built your house where?”

But wait, there’s more.

Nick goes to his solicitor and instructs him to sort this out and get these trespassers and their ugly house off his dream home site.

Are you ready??

His solicitor sadly has to inform him of an obscure but binding piece of Queensland legislation that says in plain English terms:

“Should someone inadvertently construct an improvement on someone else’s land and it is entirely accidental and unplanned then….

The land must be sold to the people who have done the improvements at fair market value.”

So Bill and Jenny now own Nicks land…. and Nick??

After informing his solicitor that the law is stupid he instructed him to fight the case.
After the lawyer lost the case, as he knew he would because the law is so clear, Nick told him he was stupid and got another lawyer.

After that lawyer lost the appeal in the high court Nick decided that Australia was pretty stupid and is now living in Yugoslavia again.

All this occurred because 1 agent couldn’t be bothered to take 5 minutes to look at a map

Stay Safe ~ Dean Letfus