The term conveyancing refers to all legal and administrative work associated with transferring the ownership of a property or land from one owner to another.
Do you do conveyancing in both NSW and the ACT?
Yes. Our staff are experienced in all areas of ACT and NSW conveyancing. Whether this is your first purchase or sale, or an addition to your investment portfolio this process can be stressful and our staff’s hard work, prompt action, continual friendly outlook and proactive attitude towards each conveyance ensures that our client’s best interests are always at the forefront.
Are there differences in buying and selling in the ACT and NSW?
In NSW and the ACT the laws require that a property marketed for sale must have a draft contract prepared beforehand. This contract must be provided to your real estate agent before marketing of your property may commence.
In the ACT property ownership is under leasehold for 99 years. You do not own the land but have a Crown Lease. In NSW this is not the case.
In NSW if you are purchasing a property and you require a building and pest report you will need to pay for this report. Obtaining a building and pest report is not mandatory in NSW although we do highly recommend that this report be prepared before you purchase.
In the ACT a building and pest report is mandatory and the seller will obtain this report. At settlement the buyer will reimburse the seller for the cost of the report.
I accepted an offer on my property what happens now?
When you have accepted an offer on your property the agent prepares a sales advice. In the sales advice both the buyer and the seller nominate a solicitor and the solicitors will then receive a copy of the sale advice.
Your solicitor will then prepare duplicate copies of the contract attaching all relevant searches and certificates and a contract is given to both you and the buyer to sign.
What happens when contracts are “exchanged”?
The seller and their solicitor will sign one copy of the prepared contract and the other copy of the prepared contract will be signed by the buyer and their solicitor. The solicitors will then “swap” the contracts and “exchange” occurs. This means that the buyer has a copy of the contract signed by the seller and the seller has a copy of the contract signed by the buyer. At the time of exchange the contracts are dated and the deposit payable by the buyer is paid.
We will endeavour to exchange contracts on your behalf as quickly as possible.
What happens if after exchange the buyer does not get finance approval?
We would recommend that buyers not enter into a contract until they have unconditional finance approval and we will not exchange contracts until we are guaranteed that buyers are in this position.
What happens once contracts are exchanged?
Once exchange of contracts has occurred the solicitor for the buyer will notify the financier of the sale and they will prepare a discharge of mortgage if applicable. The solicitor for the seller will then prepare and finalise settlement figures and cheque details and arrange a settlement date and time.
When can I move in?
Once settlement has taken place our staff will notify you of this and will advise you to collect the keys from either our office or the agent. You will be free to move in once settlement has occurred.
What happens if settlement does not take place on the date I’ve been advised?
This will depend upon why the settlement has not occurred. This could be for any number of reasons including that the solicitors for the other side are not ready, the bank is not ready or that the pre-settlement inspection was unsatisfactory. Once these issues have been attended to settlement will be re-booked and you will be notified of the date and time.