What is conveyancing?
Conveyancing is a terms that lawyers to describe the process of a property transaction. It is when one person buys property from another person such as a house, some land, a factory, an office or another piece of ‘Real Property’. You can either be buying property or selling property and this is referred to as a process of conveyancing. Conveyancing can be for residential property, commercial property, investment property, strata title or virtually any type of property that you can imagine. It is a generic terms used by lawyers for all property transactions.
What do I need for conveyancing?
The most basic thing that you need in order to have a successful conveyance is a contract. This is normally paid for by the person selling the property. It is prepared by a lawyer and includes a number of essential documents which can be obtained from the relevant government authorities such as Sydney Water, the Land and Property Management Authority (also known as the Land Titles Office) and the Office of State Revenue. Normally the person handling your conveyancing should be able to get hold of this information for you.
What are some of the traps in conveyancing?
If you do not have a professional assisting you with this process, there are a number of traps you can easily fall into which will have a very serious impact on your rights in relation to a sale. As a buyer you may fall victim to the trap of paying a deposit and then not completing the contract which means that the vendor will then be able to keep you deposit. You may not get proper advice in relation to the contract for the sale and end up buying a property which has a large number of faults that you were unaware of before the purchase. There may defects in th title to the property or things about the property which the seller did not disclose or you or you are unaware of which can prevent you from obtaining correct title to the property.
Some of the traps that you can fall into as a seller are that you may not meet your disclosure obligations under the contract and be left with a contract that can be rescinded, you could find that the buyer suddenly renigs on their after you have told all the other buyers that the property is no longer for sale which will mean that all of your marketing costs and expenses and possibly a real estate agent’s commission will be lost as a result and you will have to start again with selling the property. If your contract is not properly drafted and effective, this could be a serious problem.
How can I get help?
The only way to really ensure that your interests are protected in a matter like this is to get the assistance and advice of a licensed professional who has the necessary skills, experience, resources and training to assist you with a matter like this. We have such people at Ziman and Ziman Solicitors. If you would like to talk to me I am available online most of the time to chat, just click below.
David Coleman is a Solicitor at Ziman and Ziman Solicitors in North Sydney.
He can be contacted here:
david@zimanandziman.com.au
(02) 9923 1700
Skype: david.coleman.zimanandziman