I have recently been working with a brother and Sister purchase a block of land together. They have been building for the last two years and now have built two free-standing houses on the land.

Unfortunately, the broker they were with before did not explain everything to them. He did not set the loans up very well and has left them with a mess. One example is that the land loan was not split 50/50 this means that they were both paying into the one loan. One of them paid the mortgage insurance and the other did not and they never found out how much it was. The other issue was the brother started building before the sister. The brother started building and then they realised that the sister could not get her loan because her brother’s property was not finished so the lender would not accept the security. This delayed the sister by 5 months to start her building.

They are now both completed the constructions and they are ready to separate the loans and strata the block of land. I will help them by finding a lender that will give them a borrowing capacity high enough to separate the loans. I will work with the lenders and the council through the separation of the loans and the implementation of the strata.

What do do if you are buying with someone else other than your partner

• Make sure all the deposits / contributions are exactly 50/50 (or as per your agreed split)
• Separate the loans so you are each responsible for your portion
• Make sure all bills etc are paid as per the split
• If you are building you must submit both constructions at the same time.