Information about the property. He must also annex certain prescribed documents to the Contract for Sale. The vendor should go even further than the disclosures prescribed by law and should disclose to a purchaser as much information as possible about the property such as any information about improvements to the property whether Council approved or not.
The vendor must provide a copy or the original proposed Contract for Sale at the point of sale.
There can be no binding Contract between a vendor and purchaser unless there has been affected an “exchange of Contracts". An exchange of Contracts is simply where your Solicitors hand over the Contract for Sale, signed by you, in exchange for the Contract for Sale signed by the Purchaser. This, of course, may be effected by the Estate Agent as set out elsewhere in this Information Pamphlet. It is at this time that the full agreed deposit is to be paid by the Purchasers.
The Conveyancing Act provides for a “cooling off" period of five (5) business days from the date of the exchange. If cooling off rights are to be surrendered or the period for cooling off to be shortened then it is necessary for the purchaser to give the vendor a Certificate signed by a Solicitor, which Certificate is prescribed by the Act. Where the Certificate is given then there is no cooling off period and the Contracts are binding at the time of exchange of Contracts. Where however no Certificate is given then it is important that you are aware that there is a cooling off period.
The purpose of the cooling off period is to allow purchasers to arrange their finance and quality reports such as Pest and Building Reports.
If it is your intention to purchase another property in the hope that you will move directly from your existing property to the new property, then you should advise the Solicitor handling your matter. That Solicitor will do everything in their power to co-ordinate the sale and the purchase so that you can move from one property to the other.
When a purchaser has been located by your agent, the agent will fill up the Contract for Sale and either forward same to the respective Solicitors or arrange for the exchange. If the agent or your solicitor arranges for the exchange then you could expect settlement to take place within six (6) weeks after the expiration of the cooling off period.
By law we are governed by the Legal Profession Uniform Law (NSW). This Act provides that we cannot take action for the recovery of legal costs until thirty (30) days after a Bill of Costs has been given to you. We do point out, however, that at the expiration of this thirty (30) day period, interest pursuant to the Act will apply. We would also point out that where an agreement has been reached in respect of costs and you have been provided with a quotation, this right will not necessarily be available to you. We have provided you with a quotation. That quotation indicates when payment is required. We note that that quotation has been accepted by you.
If you consider that any charges are unreasonable, then you have a right to have your Bill assessed by an Assessor as appointed by the Supreme Court. However, we point out that where you have accepted our quotation this in effect constitutes an agreement as to costs and this right may not necessarily be available to you.
When settlement is effected we attend to payment of any mortgagee or caveator that is registered on the title to your property, our costs and disbursements will be deducted from the proceeds of sale and, if the agent is not holding the deposit, we would normally (subject to your instructions to the contrary) forward the
As you can see the conveyancing transaction can be rather complex. Blunden & Montgomeyr, however, are trained and experienced in those transactions and what appears to be extremely complex to you is handled with confidence by your Solicitor.