By Michaela Schmidt -
Snapshot
- Always confirm the purchase entity with your clients and, if in individual names, confirm whether they are acting as a trustee.
- Best practice is to always run the purchase entity by your client’s accountant.
- Don’t rush transactions through: despite what some people think, the world doesn’t end at Christmas.
Jack and Jill are new clients who were referred to you by an accountant, Fred, who you have several mutual clients with.
It’s three days before the Christmas break and, although it’s always good to get new clients, you wish you had the last couple of days to finalise the urgent things, wind down and do a bit of an office tidy-up.
Jack and Jill come in first thing and are very excited to inform you they have finally secured their dream holiday home. You feel a twang of jealousy as you recognise the address; it is a beautiful house, up on a hill and overlooking the Murrumbidgee River.
‘That’s great, congratulations,’ you say, ‘we’ll just need to wait for the contract.’ But, just as you say that, Jack reaches into his bag and pulls it out. ‘The seller thought it would be quicker if he just gave the contract straight to us, we all want to settle before Christmas,’ Jack says.
