Hi there, future neighbours :-) I'm super excited to confirm that I will be moving into Toi Ora High Street Cohousing with you all to live our 'wild and precious' lives together! The below email brought some very kind and encouraging responses, with ideas to follow up and two financing offers, one of which is just right to enable me to settle (pay), then settle (in) and begin to reestablish my life over a couple of years. I'll need to refinance then, but by then, the circumstances with valuations, bank policies, other sales and so on will be quite different.
The generosity of thought and action in all this is exactly why I chose to be part of cohousing. I want, as we all do, to both give and receive in ways not always practised in our society. To begin by being desperately in need and by receiving (so much!), is incredibly humbling. It also fills me with hope that this against-the-tide social movement of living more cooperatively can and will succeed. I'm very grateful to you all for support over the three and a bit years I've been involved so far, to those who have written and encouraged me personally over the summer and in recent days, and to the two people who were willing to share their resources to get me over the finish line. Getting finance has in a sense been everybody's problem, with such a massive project at stake. For me personally, it was nothing but existential dread. Now it is everybody's cause to celebrate, and I'm joining you all in wanting settlement day to come ASAP. Bring it on!
Very best regards and wishes to all
From Claire
On Tue, 16 Mar 2021 at 15:38, Alex King via Ucol-shareholders < ucol-shareholders@list.king.net.nz> wrote:
At the last meeting, the directors were asked to contact purchasers who needed to arrange finance, to check that their finance was on track. The directors were aware that Claire had been exploring different options for her finance, so we met with her on Saturday.
Claire's mortgage broker is currently going through a process with two banks. Clare was told on Friday that the broker only gave a 50/50 chance that she would be successful with those banks. Some other options that Claire had been exploring have not worked out.
Claire has already paid almost all of the cost of her unit as a loan to UCOL, except approximately $106,000, so she is seeking to finance the last $100,000.
The immediate implication of Claire not being able to settle on settlement day would be that she would not be able to move in with the rest of us, and UCOL would continue to own C1. As long as everyone else was able to settle, we would still have enough fund to pay off the bank loan and settle the other units, so it should not delay settlement. This would rely on retaining the external loans from people not settling units (including Claire) - which the company can do for up to 6 months after settlement (see loan agreement)
According to Clause 11 of our S&P agreements, anyone defaulting at settlement will be given notice and then has up to 12 working days to settle, after which UCOL can sell the unit. If this happened with Claire, UCOL would arrange for C1 to be sold, and then pay back the remaining loans, including Claire's.
If the banks don't come through with mortgage finance this week, Claire has a few other options. She is investigating getting a loan from e.g. non-banks (2nd & 3rd tier) lenders. She is also be interested in finding other sources of lending, or perhaps find someone else to buy a share in her house. If anyone knows of possibilities for finance, Claire would be keen to hear from you. Perhaps one of us, or some of us, or someone we know might help.
The directors would be delighted if Claire was able to settle with the rest of us. We can't give investment advice though, and anyone considering investing in Claire's unit should seek independent advice.
Claire can be contacted on 027 2931 983 or via email permacultureparadise@gmail.com and she would be very happy to hear directly from people.
Thanks, Alex King Director, UCOL
P.S, My apologies for inadvertently sending out a note about that with the news about the titles.
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