Don’t Lose Money or Let A Sale Slip Through Your Fingers Due to Sloppy Conveyancing

Conveyancing is the legal process of transferring the title of a property from one owner to another, which is typically carried out and concluded at settlement. The conveyancing process itself involves doing searches and then gathering and preparing many documents relating to the property, so that ownership of the property can be transferred to the new owner.

Regardless on what side of the fence you sit as either a buyer or seller — conveyancing is a necessity. As a vendor, you’ll need to prepare the contract of sale document, a vendor’s statement, as well as any of the following documents as they relate to the property:

• Section 149 certificate (zoning certificate)
• Sewerage diagram
• Certificate of title
• Land plans
• Easement, profit-à-prendre, restrictions on the land use or positive covenant
• Notice in respect to smoke alarms and/or swimming pools
• Copies of strata plans, bylaws and certificate for the lot, as well as the common property; plus strata development contracts/statements, (if any), strata management statement in force at the time (if any), documents relating to the community, precinct or neighbourhood scheme (if any), building management statement (if any).

The buyer, meanwhile, will want to do their own checks relating to zoning, sewerage, easements, and so forth themselves, and then compare their findings with the claims made by the owner in the vendor’s statement. It’s here that, if the vendor has made any claims about the property that aren’t correct, the buyer can pull out of the sale.

Conveyancing is just as important to the sale of a home as marketing or advertising it is — if it isn’t done correctly, it can hold up the sale of the property for many weeks or it could be the cause of the sale falling through. Certainly, a vendor or buyer can carry out their own conveyancing, but it’s rarely recommended.

Conveyancing laws differ state-to-state

As it is, before you factor in conveyancing, there are enough things you need to attend to when you’re selling your home — preparing your home for sale, attend to buyer feedback, consider buyer offers, etc. If you’re selling your primary residence, then you’re you’re probably also looking for a home to buy, as well.

That said, if you still think you can manage to fit conveyancing into the equation, there are conveyancing kits you can buy for between $80 and $150. There are things to consider before going down the DIY route, however. To begin, you need to be comfortable and capable searching for and gathering all of the documents required for the sale of your property. Most conveyancing kits provide you with an idea of the kinds of documents required, but it takes knowledge of your state or territory’s conveyancing laws to be certain which ones you’ll need.

Conveyancing plays a key role in property settlement

Part of the conveyancing process also involves handling enquiries from the buyer’s conveyancer, dealing with mortgage lenders,  and so forth. In deed, conveyancing plays a crucial role in the successful settlement of a property, which is most often held up when there are mistakes or problems with one or more of the documents required for the property to settle.

Hold ups on settlement day are often costly. Most people have movers arranged for the same day as settlement, but until settlement is finalised, the keys won’t be released to the buyer. In some cases, you could be liable to pay interest for each day that settlement is held up or deferred.

The cost of hiring a professional conveyancer or conveyancing solicitor, is usually only a few thousand dollars, at most, an expense that pales when compared with the other costs associated with selling a property. Of course, if you’re familiar with the conveyancing process, you may prefer to manage it yourself. If you’re not, however, we recommend that you hiring a conveyancer or solicitor to manage this for you.

Conveyancing is discussed in detail in our guide to selling property, called Selling Your Home. It’s available as a free download when you subscribe to our website. Alternatively, for more news and analysis on the property market, continue reading our blog.

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Our educational blogs are designed to help you understand each of the steps involved in selling your property so whether you choose to work with a real estate agent or do it yourself you'll understand the work involved and be more efficient and aware of what you need to do. Our articles have been seen in these major online news and information portals..

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