Once a price is agreed and the terms are finalised for the sale of a Property (including the purchase of land from a developer) the contracts are sent to lawyers/conveyancers to transfer the Property from seller to buyer. Transfer documents and forms are prepared for stamp duty payment and lodged with the state authorities. All the rates and payments against the property are adjusted between the buyer and seller and final payments are made. Banks and Statutory Authorities all finalise the sums owed to them for the Transfer. Once these payments are made Titles are updated so the new owners are recorded on the Title.

We advise you to secure your conveyancer earlier in the process for a few key reasons:

1. there may be a cooling-off period in your contract which only last a few days;
2. you only have a limited time to make changes to a contract or terminate it if you are unable to proceed;
3. no Contract of Sale is standard and as a matter of good practice you should never sign anything until you’ve had legal advice;
4. settlement delay is commonly caused by conveyancers not starting their work early enough; and
5. you can rest easy knowing that it’s one thing you don’t need to worry about down the track.

When you buy or sell a property you need a qualified person to transfer that property’s title from the seller to the buyer. There are two types of people that can do this:

1. a ‘conveyancer’ is not a lawyer and can merely transfer the title from the seller to the buyer; or
2. a legally qualified lawyer who specialises in conveyancing can not only transfer the title, but they can also provide you legal advice on the transaction.

A person who is not a lawyer (i.e. a conveyancer) cannot provide legal advice. We recommend you use a firm with qualified lawyers.

Each builder will have different terms and your building contract is a legal contract which binds you to certain obligations. As such, it is good practice to have a lawyer review it before you sign it. Also, you need to ensure that its terms accurately reflect the house you’ve chosen to build and that it complies with the guidelines provided by the property developer.