Law Blog

1. Seek legal advice before you sign

If possible, consult your solicitor before you sign the contract. Real estate agents can be pushy and whoever drafted the contract (probably the real estate agent) may have left out important terms and conditions, such as special conditions to protect your interests. No matter how friendly the real estate agent or the seller is, and no matter how many verbal promises they make you, in Queensland contracts for the sale of land must be in writing, and so their kind words simply must be put down on paper. If the real estate agent tells you that the leaking shower will be fixed prior to settlement, let the agent and your solicitor know that you would like this to be a condition of the contract of sale. If the seller tells you that they are going to replace the wallpaper in the lounge room prior to settlement, same deal.

Putting the terms of your agreement in writing not only protects you, but adds a higher degree of certainty to the transaction as a whole and can only do good things for your relationship with the seller and his or her agent. If everybody knows exactly what is expected of them, the chances of mistakes being made and tempers being inflamed are naturally reduced. So it follows that the sooner in the conveyancing process this point of certain agreement is reached (ideally before the contract is signed by the parties), the better for everyone.

2. Have your personal banker on speed dial

It can take far longer for a bank to process a loan application than one might consider reasonable. Remember this and when you receive preapproval for your loan make sure you have somebody at the bank you can call who will be available immediately throughout the conveyancing process. The finance clause of a typical contract for the sale of land is inflexible – if you have agreed with the seller that you have until 5.00pm on a particular date to obtain finance and to advise the seller of this, that time is a condition of the contract and cannot be delayed without further agreement with the seller. If your bank is taking a long time to process your application and cannot give you a definitive answer as to if you actually have finance approved by the finance date specified in the contract, the seller is usually well within his or her rights to terminate the contract, and there usually won’t be anything you can do about it.

So ensure that your bank is on the ball and do not be shy about reminding them regularly or even daily that you have a looming deadline that cannot be extended.

3. Follow your solicitor’s instructions

If your solicitor (either personally or through a paralegal/ legal secretary) requests that you send a document to someone or contact your bank urgently about a particular matter – do it. This may seem obvious, but if you fail to obey your lawyer’s instructions, the conveyancing process can migrate from a smooth, efficient process to a nightmare. Keep a diary or calendar on your computer/ mobile phone/ in your bag and write down a checklist of things that your solicitor has told you that you need to do. Most law firms will provide you with a checklist like this at the start of the transaction, but feel free to make your own in a form that makes sense to you.

Failing to contact your bank to give them enough time to prepare your loan documentation, for example, may not only cause serious inconvenience to your bank, but may end in the termination of your contract and forfeited legal fees. Deadlines may be more like advisory speed limits in your day to day life, but treat conveyancing deadlines as life or death matters and your solicitor’s instructions just as seriously.

4. Be prepared for the unexpected

There are numerous parties involved in your transaction – usually you, your financier, your solicitor, the seller, the seller’s real estate agent, the seller’s solicitor, the seller’s mortgagee (the bank that currently holds a mortgage over the property), the office of state revenue (who you pay your stamp duty to), the body corporate of the property you’re moving into and all the other people/ businesses/ authorities who are connected to both your current property and the new property.

There is rarely a conveyance that goes exactly to plan, and the reason is usually that one or more of the parties involved makes a mistake. Usually mistakes can be fixed quickly however some take longer to repair and can actually prevent settlement occurring on time. The delay can sometimes be a few hours, a few days or any length of time as agreed between the parties. So it is not hyperbole to say that you should expect at least one problem with your conveyance. Hopefully the problem won’t cause the contract to be terminated – more common is the case of the seller forgetting to request that their bank organise the release of mortgage, which will more often than not result in the settlement being delayed until the seller’s bank has processed the relevant documentation... this is out of your control as the purchaser, so is a good example of why you need to be prepared for the unexpected.

Therefore, if possible, avoid making plans that necessitate the transaction definitely settling on the agreed date of settlement – leave a few days buffer if you can and if problems occur you may be very thankful that you did.

5. You get what you pay for

In the legal industry, just like in any other industry, you are probably getting what you pay for. There is a myriad of law firms offering bargain basement prices for conveyancing services in an effort to sign you up, however this can come at a real cost. The lower prices charged by these firms often means that one paralegal may be handling upwards of 50 files at any given time (that’s right – 49 transactions other than yours are competing for your paralegal’s attention at any given moment). Don’t blame the law firm for this though... their lower prices mean that in order to pay wages and make a profit they have to handle more files. The downside is that if there is a problem with your transaction (see point 4 above for the likelihood of this) your paralegal/ legal secretary/ solicitor may not have the time to actually help you get through the issue/s properly. Delays can be deadly to conveyancing transactions and if you have to wait on hold just to speak to your paralegal every time you call, and it takes him or her days to return your calls or respond to your emails each and every time you make contact, this can have a cost in terms of your stress levels also.

Paying extra money to deal with a boutique sized law firm often means that you will have much easier access to your paralegal/ solicitor and he or she will have the time available to actually deal with your issues without compromising the other files he or she is currently working on.

--> To obtain a conveyancing quote right now click here or to learn more about conveyancing in Queensland click here...