7 Things to Make Your Conveyancing Easier (For You!!)

Our resident Conveyancing Solicitor Mark Kenny gives some tips on ensuring a smooth property transaction every single time.

THE OLD DOCK PILOTS

When I was growing up I used to love going to the dock area in my home town of Southampton (no pommy cricket jokes please !!) and watch the dock pilots guide large vessels, including the large cruise liners, through the dock’s waters and past the hidden obstacles that lay therein.

Experienced captains placed significant reliance in these seasoned professionals who knew the waters like the “back of their hand”.

WE ARE YOUR PILOT

Here at Aylward Game we want to play a similar role and guide you through the waters of the conveyancing process and past the hidden obstacles therein.

Buying a house, whether it is your first home or the latest upgrade or even an investment property, can be a very stressful experience.

Conveyancing in Queensland is complex and is affected by at least 20 different pieces of State and Federal legislation, contract conditions, extensive case law and practice guidelines. Many things in a conveyance may not go as expected. Here at Aylward Game we want to reduce the stress that you face and are here to guide you through what this potentially complex legal process.

However there are a number of things that you can do to increase the likelihood that the process goes as smoothly as possible and in this article we will consider our “Top 7”.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

1. Communication

It is important that you give us as much information about what you are looking to do – if in doubt as to whether we need to know something tell us!! .  Your active involvement in the process is therefore critical to achieving a successful result.

This is especially so if you have any concerns as to your rights under the contract – trust us and our experience – the only dumb question is the one that you do not ask and you are then exposed to a liability or causes you to lose your legal rights.

Equally so it is important that we are able to contact you at all times so tell us if your contact phone number, email or address changes or if you expect communication difficulties at any time.

2. Read The Material That We Send You

Courts require us to explain a range of issues concerning your conveyance and how you might protect against them.

To meet this requirement we will send you a fair amount of material that contains important information about your purchase.  It is important that you read and consider all our advice and tell us if you have any concerns about the contract, the property or any other aspect of our advice.

Failure to do this could mean that you may lose rights, suffer loss or be unable to purchase the property simply because we were unable to contact you at a critical stage

3. Carefully Watch Deadlines

Your contract is likely to contain a number of important dates and deadlines that you ignore at your peril!!! As you probably know lawyers love fancy phrases so we call this “time is of the essence” which means that if you do not do something when you are supposed to then you may lose important legal rights or expose yourself to liabilities.

Key dates you might want to look out for are cooling off periods and building and pest and finance dates. We will remind you of these dates as they approach but you should ensure that you understand what your obligations are and start any necessary preparation (ordering inspectors, talking to your bank etc) as soon as you sign the contract. As always if in doubt ask!

4. Check You Have Enough Money to Complete Your Purchase

Your purchase will require you to meet a variety of expenses that may not be readily apparent.

These include government fees and charges – stamp duty that can be over $10,000, registration fees for the transfer of your land, pest inspector costs, search costs (see below), bank charges and our fees.

You should talk to us early in the process to ensure that you are fully aware of all these costs and we avoid issues just before settlement.

5. Know Your Property

You are making one of life’s major purchases so it is important that you know what you are buying. In Queensland property has a street address but also has a lot and plan number and a title reference and it is these numbers that determine what you are buying.

We can help you here by conducting a number of searches on your behalf. We will talk to you about available searches early in the process but here are some key searches that you can consider – there are many more that we can discuss with you:

• Title Search – shows you who owns the property at the moment and whether any other party has an interest in the property.
• Registered Plan Search – shows you what the Department of Natural Resources and Mines records reveal about the property
• Local Council Searches – shows you outstanding rates, whether the property is affected by flooding and other important matters
• Government Department Searches – these include whether there are any relevant matters on their records or future plans for the site. Government departments include the Environmental Protection Agency and Main Roads.

What searches you do is entirely a matter for you and your budget but you should discuss searches with us early in the process as results can take some time to come back and you will want as many results back before important deadlines.

6. How will You “Hold The Property”

(i) More Than One Owner – Joint Tenants and Tenants in Common

Where you will be buying the property with another person (or more than one) you can hold it as “tenants in common” or “joint tenants”.

This will be the subject of a future article that explores all the implications of this distinction but for the purposes of this introductory article you need to answer the following question:

“on the death of one of the owners do you want that person’s interest to automatically pass to the other owner/owners or be distributed according to their will?”

If you want it to automatically pass you should consider joint tenancy and if you want it to pass according to their will you should consider tenancy in common.

(ii)Individual/Company/Trusts

This will also be the subject of a future article that explores all the implications of this distinction but for the purposes of this introductory article if you are looking to buy your property in a company or trust name please ensure that you have all company and trust documents available so that we can assist you in considering all relevant implications.

7. When Things Go Wrong

It is said that “even the best plans go awry” and we understand that things may go wrong in the conveyancing process including:

• Issues found in the building and pest report
• Change in financial circumstances
• Illness

It is vital that you call us immediately when this occurs – we are here to help and will guide you through your options and protect your legal rights.

8. Final Point

Yes I know that I said 7 points but here’s an extra one that really covers all the earlier 7.

As your trusted pilot we are here to guide you through the process and make it as stress free as possible – we are highly experienced in the conveyancing process and know the conveyancing waters well.

Please call us with all your conveyancing needs and let us guide you into port.

Please subscribe now for future articles to look out for on the topics of:

• Buying a Unit
• Joint Tenants v Tenants in Common
• Installment Contracts
• Leases
• Tenancies

Contact

Aylward Game Solicitors