In the wind-down to Christmas last year, one of lawlab’s Senior Legal Advisors in Queensland, lawyer Ashley Kersey, received a call from a client. Avik Rakhit had been looking to buy a unit on the Gold Coast for months, but just hadn’t managed to find the right one.

However, just three days before Christmas he found exactly what he’d always dreamed of. “Once I found this unit, I loved it so much that I knew I had to have it,” Avik said. “And I also wanted to be living there for Christmas Day.”

“Given it was only three days before Christmas I guessed it wasn’t impossible but as Ash had acted for me on my last purchase I called him anyway.”

Their conversation went a little like this: 

Avik: ”Hey mate, I found a new place!”

Ashley: “That’s great news.”

Avik: ”Only one problem - I want to settle and move in before Christmas.”

Ashley:”Um… you mean this Christmas? As in, before this Friday?”

Ashley was initially doubtful it was possible. 

“Given the time of year and knowing from experience how long banks can take to organise settlement, I didn’t think it would be achievable,” Ashley said.” But Avik was so keen that I was happy to give it a shot even though I doubted we could do it.”

At this stage, Ashley hadn’t even seen a draft contract. 

“As soon as I got off the phone to Avik, I left Brisbane and went to meet him at our Gold Coast office, Ashley recalls. “I went through the contract with him and got him signed up. I was able to upload a copy of the signed contract to our digital communications platform, Rundl, which meant the agent and other service providers, as well as our back office team, had instant access to it.”

The contract was exchanged quickly and settlement scheduled for the following day.

Lawlab Legal Director Richie Muir and the rest of the team were working tirelessly to get the sale through before Christmas.

“Just when we thought we couldn’t be under more pressure, the agent advised us that the new furniture was booked in to arrive on Christmas Eve so we all knew at this point we had to succeed!” Richie said.

“Fortunately Avik was a cash buyer so we didn’t have to wait for any finance approval or loan documents to issue. The seller did have a mortgage on title that could have delayed settlement but we were very pleased when St George Bank’s discharges team agreed to provide the discharge in time for settlement,” Richie added. 

The lawlab team then prepared the necessary documents to transfer title, conducted property searches and calculated settlement figures. Avik was kept up to date throughout the process. 

“I knew exactly what was going on in real-time because of the updates and notifications through the Rundl platform and regular calls from Ashley,” Avik said.

Sarah Tremain from the lawlab settlement team said on the morning of settlement an unforeseen delay meant the team started to give up hope. “Just two hours before the nominated settlement time we still hadn’t received the cheque directions from the seller’s solicitors. I was starting to think we might not be able to have settlement through on time,” Sarah said.

Ashley said things progressively got worse: “I got a call from Avik to say he had been dealing with his Robina branch that needed to have the cheques drawn there rather than close to the settlement venue in Southport.”

“There was nothing to do but jump on my motorbike so I could avoid the traffic jams and get there in time.”

Whilst Ashley was on his bike, Sarah received cheque directions from the other party’s solicitor and, using Rundl, Avik was able to approve the final figures. Ashley collected the bank cheques from Avik at the bank and then jumped back on the bike to get to Southport for settlement.  

Arriving with just five minutes to spare, Ashley said it was an amazing feeling to be able to deliver such an awesome Christmas present to Avik: “Our lawlab systems and our team mean we do incredible things everyday as part of our customer service but this was truly special. Walking into the settlement room with cheques in my hand to complete Avik’s purchase (that hadn’t even existed 24 hours prior) was an amazing feeling and I immediately called Avik with the good news.”

Adam Lochowicz, sales agent at Colliers International was amazed with the outstanding result.  “The client needed the settlement to be fast and fast they got. The speed in which lawlab were able to make this happen was phenomenal,” Adam said.

“It was the best Christmas present ever,” according to Avik.

At lawlab we can’t be Santa every day but we know you won’t get better customer service (both digital and real world) anywhere else.  Find out more about our team and our national conveyancing service at www.lawlab.com.au