Hi all, i am going to purchase a subsale condo and is now waiting for S&P to be ready. The condo has some water leakage defects at the ceiling of the bathroom, which should be fixed by upper unit. I requested the owner to make good the defects before handing over the unit and I placed my booking after confirmed that he will do so before handing over the unit to me. But the agent with the owner told me that the upper unit owner is working at another state and rarely come back here. They managed to meet up with the upper unit owner on December 2018, but till to date there is still no progress at all. The owner of the unit is also working at overseas and i think this issue will be dragged for a long time, which i dont think the owner will hand over the unit to me with the problem fixed.

How should I solve this issue? I want to put a clause in S&P, anyone can advise?

ask your lawyer for advise. prolly put a clause...actually in general put a clause to say it needs to be fixed or you will fix it and charge the owner of the house (whether or not it is upstairs fault.

I asked the lawyer to include a clause stating the owner to rectify the defects before hand over but she told me that i must also state an exact amount of repair cost from my side if the owner fail to do so before handing over the unit to me. But this amount need to be mutually agreed which i think the owner is unlikely to accept it as he will say this is upper unit fault, upper unit should do, why should he pay?

Inter floor leakage is difficult to resolve if the upper unit is not cooperative.

Is about money, time and mess.

If I am the vendor, I rather pay you the agreed amount and you resolve it after vp.

now is buyer market. tell owner take it or leave it ... meanwhile look for other unit ..

Provided buyer willing to forego the earnest money unless it is stated in the booking form.

that can become a reason for you to back out from the deal.

This I agree. I am very certain that there are other units available out there for you to take. I am not sure if you did pay the 3% booking fee, and if you did, I would hope that you have a "refundable" clause that has "subject to bank loan rejection etc etc".

Your lawyer can give you that advise. Be firm to ask that owner to get it fixed.

The selling price of this unit fits what i am looking for as owner willing to cut down a bit from initial asking price and others not willing to sell at this price, thats why i decided to buy this unit only after i confirmed with owner that he will fix the water leakage issue before handing over. I took some pic of the leaking at ceiling slab.



Yes, i already placed 1% booking fee, there is a refundable clause only for loan rejection. I didnt include this clause in the booking form because when i signed the booking form i never thought the upper unit owner will drag this issue i call agent, agent gives me excuse he is working at other states seldom come back, then say CNY holiday, i feel like the upper unit owner is not willing to fix.

ask owner to reduce abit as compensation for you to repair that damage. win win

management is supposed to be involved in cases like this. strata act states clearly on the responsibility of upper floor unit owner need to rectify such leakage defects. but looking at the unit, it looks new ? is it still under defect liability period?

Yeah, if your unit is not older than 18 months, you can still do a defect liability claim. Else, if not, you have to pursue this with management. That is, of course, if you die die want this unit.

I think owner not willing to reduce anymore, last time i think the agent persuade owner to reduce to my price and i already signed my loan offer.

You mean i should complain to management that the upper unit owner is delaying to fix the problem? But the unit i think is still under the current owner. The unit is still new because no one stay in it before since completion in 2015.

This post has been edited by Agent 45: Feb 21 2019, 05:23 PM

well.. losing that 1% is better than having a defect unit that you will headache for years! purposely go flung your loan.. u get back your 1%

check to see if the current owner has lodged the leakage to the management. management is supposed to assist in contacting the upper floor unit owner. there's a timeframe in which the owner must rectify the defect otherwise can bring owner to court.

as far as i know, agent told me that they already informed management and the upper unit owner and they actually inspected the unit together last december.

later, you can follow up with management once changed to your name. hopefully upstairs unit owner is cooperative