Banks, non-bank lenders, trustees, insolvency practitioners and managing mortgagee in possession portfolios run work that sits at an unusual intersection.
On one side, there is a financial institution or their appointed representative with a duty to recover value, a reputation to protect and regulatory expectations to meet. On the other, there is a former homeowner or business owner, often in the middle of the hardest period of their life, whose property is being prepared for sale to recover the debt owed. The work has to move to commercial timelines. It also has to be done with dignity, with duty of care, and with the reputational and regulatory discipline that large institutional lenders require and regulators demand.
This is a category of work where conventional property agency does not fit. Mortgagee in possession is not ordinary real estate. It is a regulated process involving legal possession, vacant possession or eviction, compliance with the mortgagee's duty to the mortgagor, state-specific requirements on marketing and sale, auditability of every decision, and the constant presence of reputational risk for the lender. Volume alone is not the challenge. The challenge is running volume through this process consistently, visibly and with the care that vulnerable customers and institutional clients both require.
Faculti Property Services, delivered by TG Assistance Pty Ltd, is the specialist property presenting arm of the Faculti group. We manage mortgagee in possession and recovery property portfolios for banks, non-bank lenders, trustees and insolvency practitioners nationally, from pre-possession inspection through to post-settlement close-out.
What we do
Our Property Services team acts for banks, non-bank lenders, trustees, insolvency practitioners and other institutional mortgagees across Australia. We work with our clients' chosen legal advisers on the legal elements of each assignment, interfacing with law firms as the lender directs. The team is made up of asset managers and property professionals (drawn from the property, construction, finance and sales sectors) with direct experience of mortgagee in possession work, the regulatory framework that governs it and the operational protocols that institutional lenders require. Routine assignments run through structured workflows. Complex and sensitive assignments (contested possessions, occupied premises, vulnerable former owners, estate situations, multi-title or commercial assets) run with senior supervision from the outset.
Before a lender makes a possession decision, it often requires reliable information on the property, its condition, its occupancy status and its likely market value. We undertake pre-possession inspections, field calls, occupancy checks, drive-by appraisals and kerbside valuation reports, providing lenders with the factual base for the decisions that follow. Reports are prepared to the standard of evidence institutional lenders and their governance frameworks require, and delivered within timeframes that allow decisions to move.
Borrower-led sales, where the mortgagor sells the property themselves under the lender's supervision, can produce the best commercial and human outcome for all parties. We manage borrower-led sales on behalf of the lender, coordinating with the mortgagor, liaising with their agent, overseeing marketing and timelines, and providing the lender with the oversight and reporting needed to manage the risk of the arrangement. Where the borrower-led path stalls, we coordinate the transition into formal possession without loss of momentum.
Legal possession is the most procedurally sensitive moment in the cycle. We coordinate the entire possession process on behalf of the lender (vacant possession, voluntary surrender, eviction and tenanted possession) working alongside the lender's nominated law firm where legal process is required, and engaging with sheriffs, locksmiths, transport providers, chattel assessors, and where required removalists and occupants in line with state-specific procedure. Trespass notices, lock changes and property security follow immediately on possession. Every step is documented and reported.
A proportion of mortgagee in possession assignments involve vulnerable former owners, family members, mental health circumstances or situations of acute personal distress. These assignments are not an exception to our standard workflow. They are a regular part of it. We handle them with the care, patience and regulatory awareness the circumstances require, coordinating with hardship teams, family members, financial counsellors and community support providers, and working to protect the lender's regulatory and reputational position while treating the individuals involved with dignity.
Property assignments arising from a deceased mortgagor or property owner combine legal complexity with acute personal sensitivity. The title may sit with an executor or administrator who is themselves grieving, the property may hold decades of family history, and the commercial timeline has to accommodate probate, estate administration and the wishes of the family where possible. We manage deceased estate property assignments with the patience the circumstances require and the procedural care the title and commercial position demand, coordinating with executors, estate lawyers and family members through the lifecycle.
Recovery properties sometimes present conditions like:
soil contamination from underground storage tanks, fuel spills or historical industrial use
hazardous building materials including asbestos, lead paint and unstable structures
residual chemical contamination from clandestine drug use or manufacture
pets, working animals and livestock left at the property.
Each of these situations carries specialist needs and risk to be remediated or addressed before the property can move through the rest of the cycle.
Preparing a recovery property for sale requires judgement and specialist capability. We compile comprehensive market proposals with supporting valuation to ensure we are in control of expectations rather than being led by the market or the agents. Faculti oversees maintenance and state-specific compliance work to prepare the property, manage the accounts function for invoices received, and provide the lender with auction reserve or advertised price recommendations based on the market evidence coupled with our expertise. Marketing reports are prepared to regulatory standards and delivered to the lender through the life of the campaign.
The quality of the real estate agent selected for a mortgagee in possession sale materially affects the commercial outcome. We operate a national panel of thousands of real estate agents, valuers and tradespeople reviewed continuously based on performance, and matched to each property by location, asset class and circumstance. Panel management runs as standing work: onboarding, review, performance tracking and removal where standards slip.
Not every recovery property sits on a single Torrens title. Strata schemes, community titles, company title, multi-lot holdings, caveated titles, leasehold interests and properties with unresolved title complications all require specialist handling that goes beyond standard conveyancing capability. Complex title work is a genuine speciality of the team, drawing on decades of experience with the title structures that cause most recovery processes to stall. We identify title issues early, coordinate the steps required to bring title into a saleable condition, and run the assignment through to clean settlement. There have been occasions where we secured an appointment to the body corporate to make this happen and maximise return to our clients and in turn, their customer.
Recovery properties are frequently left with possessions, furniture, vehicles or business stock that the lender is not entitled simply to dispose of. State-specific abandoned goods legislation governs what must be documented, what must be stored, for how long, and what notices must be issued before disposal. We coordinate the abandoned goods process through to lawful resolution, protecting the lender's position and ensuring the former occupant's rights are respected.
The commercial risk of a mortgagee in possession assignment does not end at contract. It ends at successful settlement. We oversee exchange and completion of contracts of sale, maintain the property through to settlement, manage the accounts close-out and retain files in secure encrypted archive for lender access at any time. Every step of the lifecycle (from pre-possession inspection to post-settlement archive) is documented, reportable and auditable.
Institutional lenders require portfolio-level visibility, not just file-level updates. Our technology platform gives lenders real-time access to every property in their portfolio: current status, inspection reports, valuation evidence, marketing campaign data, cost and invoice records, and decision history. KPI reporting runs across the portfolio on turnaround, sale outcomes, timeline adherence, vulnerable customer handling and regulatory compliance. The reporting layer is built for the governance expectations of major banks, non-bank lenders and trustees.
Trustees in bankruptcy and insolvency practitioners appointed to individuals and companies hold property recovery powers that operate under their own legislative framework, with different timelines, reporting obligations and stakeholder considerations to traditional mortgagee possession work. We act for trustees and insolvency practitioners on the property presenting workflow for recovery assets, working alongside the trustee's office on valuation, possession, marketing and sale, and coordinating with creditor representatives and the insolvency process as required.
Mortgagee in possession work is predominantly residential, but not exclusively. Commercial, retail and industrial assets come into the recovery pipeline and carry materially different operational considerations: commercial tenancy interfaces, GST and commercial property tax, plant and equipment disposal, environmental and contamination issues, and the specialist marketing and valuation expertise non-residential assets require. We handle commercial and industrial recovery property assignments as a specialist capability within the team, working alongside the lender's nominated law firm where legal issues attach.
How we deliver
The Faculti Property Services model is not a real estate agency that also takes bank work. It is a specialist institutional provider built around the operational, regulatory and reputational expectations of bank and non-bank lenders. Routine assignments run through structured workflows supervised by experienced asset managers. When an assignment requires escalation (because it is contested, sensitive, commercially significant, or carries regulatory exposure) a senior practitioner takes carriage of it directly.
We operate across the range of client-interface models that institutional lenders use. For some clients, we are the outsourced property presenting function, running the full portfolio end-to-end. For others, we sit alongside an in-house recovery or possession team, providing specialist support on sensitive or complex assignments. For others again, we work in coordination with the lender's legal representatives, trustees or insolvency practitioners under agreed protocols. The model flexes to the client's operating structure.
Faculti Property Services acts as the property presenting specialist on behalf of the lender, working with whichever law firm the lender has appointed on the legal recovery side. We have established working protocols with a range of law firms across the country, and our process discipline allows us to integrate cleanly with the lender's chosen legal provider, thus negating the lender to change their existing legal arrangements.
Vulnerable customer handling is not a soft edge of the service. It is a regulatory, reputational and commercial discipline that runs through every assignment. We work alongside lenders' hardship teams, financial counsellors and external support services where appropriate, and our asset managers are trained to handle sensitive circumstances with the care the individuals involved require and the discipline the lender's regulatory position depends on.
Our technology platform, accelerates the work around it (intake, inspection reporting, document processing, portfolio visibility, accounts and close-out) so the judgement calls happen where they matter, at speed, with every step accounted for. KPI reporting runs across the portfolio: timelines met, sales completed, reporting lodged, vulnerable assignments handled, costs controlled.
The result is delivery confidence across the full portfolio. Efficient throughput on the assignments that should move. Senior attention, care and judgement on the ones that require it. Every step accounted for.
Track record
Faculti Property Services was originally formed in 1998 as Merc Property by founder Robin Matters, who recognised the need for an ethical and institutional management system for the emerging mortgagee in possession industry. Over more than 25 years, the business has managed over 30,000 properties across every Australian jurisdiction, for a client base that includes major banks, non-bank lenders, trustees in bankruptcy, insolvency practitioners and institutional mortgage holders. The national panel of real estate agents, valuers and tradespeople exceeds 6,000, curated and managed continuously for performance.
As a business we revel in the challenges and pride ourselves in seeking 'out of the box' solutions when required. Having addressed property issues from Christmas Island to Norfolk Island, there is little we are daunted by.
The business joined during Covid as a sister entity to Faculti Lawyers and now operates under Faculti's governance framework. The trading history is continuous. The operational infrastructure is much of what is now standard across the Australian mortgagee in possession sector.