Hello Cruel World

Saturday, February 22, 2003

Genealogy sites

www.cyndislist.com

statelibrary.vic.gov

Warning! Warning! Complaint Alert!

A Good Catch-22

Background

A few years back my partner was retrenched due to
outsourcing; luckily he found a new job fairly soon.
He used his retrenchment payout to buy a modest house
on a lovely block in a small town near the coast
within commuting distance of both Sydney & Newcastle.

Plan was the usual one: rent it out, use rent to pay
mortgage; then, depending on the situation at the time
of his/our retirement:

either moving up there;

selling it for cash;

keeping it rented as income.

It became untenanted and needed a fair bit of repairs before
someone else could move in. We started on the repairs &
spent quite a bit of time up there, but I fell seriously ill
& he died before it was fixed. Spoilt those retirement plans.

When he died his bank account was frozen. With my illness
& assorted legal complications his estate is still not
settled, though there is good hope that it will be ready
real soon now (I've said that before...)). The lenders
were getting rather toey about their payments.

Eventually I gave up waiting for settlement. A friend
lent me some money we gave directly to the mortgagor
(throwing a sop to Cerebus) & put me in contact with
reliable handyman; repairs were done, my friend & I
scrubbed, swept, vacuumed, mowed & cleaned. The local
real estate agent pronounced it suitable & a (perhaps
unknowingly brave) couple leased it & have moved in.

Now. Here comes the tricky bit.
The lenders used to get a monthly direct debit paid from
the now-frozen account. It can't be thawed. The agent
has to pay the rent to something in my partner's name
(eg, we can't get it paid into an account in my name,
then debited to the mortgage). Because no-one has been
named executor or administrator, we can't set up an
account for The Estate of X yet. The mortgage company
(because they aren't a bank or similar) aren't equipped
to set up an account into which things can be paid -
and in any case it wouldn't be in his name & the agent
wouldn't be supposed to pay into it.

So far all we have come up with is for the rent to be
paid into the agent's trust account.
Somehow, (despite using up most of my savings on his
funeral, his other debts, my many medical bills, only
now working part-time for part-pay & supporting my aged
mother) we will have to throw another chunk of money
directly into the maw of the lenders to fend off the
ravening wolves until something is settled - a bit of
superannuation might come through; I might be able to
set up an account in his estate's name; eventually the
complications will work out (??)

But wait! There's more!
Meanwhile, the tenants were having trouble with the
drains. Recently they blocked up completely & when
the plumbers came in to fix it, they found that the
reason the plant roots (made desperate by the drought)
had been able to get into the pipes was that they'd
never been properly connected to the sewer (when the
area was converted from septic tanks).

The whole drainage system had to be excavated, checked
& properly connected.
There goes some more money.

A decade or so back, I was rejected for Income Protection Insurance. It would have come in very handy. My illness wasn't, as far as I know, easily predictable. Annoying.
OK that's the complaints finished for the moment.

Motto: Make a Will

[permalink][comment] - posted by Mez @ 2/22/2003 12:15:00 am

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Australia, New South Wales, Sydney, English, photography, reading, natural history, land use, town planning, sustainability.