Belle Property

Buying or selling property may be one of the biggest financial decisions that most people will make in their lifetime.This article will address any queries you might have in plain English. So, what exactly is conveyancing? Put simply, a Conveyance is the legal process of transferring ownership of title or an interest in title, of property to a new owner, be that a person or entity. Typically, a property conveyance consists of four stages: 1. Pre- contract stage This stage is where the buyer makes an offer on the property, which is accepted by the seller.Any pre-purchase inspections are undertaken by the purchaser, usually a pest and building inspection, or a strata inspection if you are buying strata/community/neighbourhood title.The purchaser’s solicitor or conveyancer will review the contract with the purchaser, provide advice and seek amendments to the contract if necessary. 2-3. Exchange(between exchange & completion) To make a purchase or sale of property legally binding, the buyer and seller counter-part contracts are ‘exchanged’ – this means that the purchaser receives the seller’s signed contract, and the seller receives the purchaser’s signed contract.To effect this process the conveyancer or solicitor doing the exchange will make sure the two signed contracts are exactly the same by going through both of them, then the front page of the Contracts will be dated.A deposit is paid at this time, which is usually 10% of the purchase price, but can be less, and is usually held by a third party such as the sellers real estate agent, solicitor or conveyancer in their Trust account until the contract is completed and the transaction is settled. 4. Settlement Settlement is the day that the conveyance is finalised. Settlement usually occurs now via the electronic platform PEXA. PEXA is a secure online platform that allows property transactions to be completed quickly and easily.All representatives involved in the transaction such as the vendor and purchaser’s conveyancer or solicitor as well as any incoming or outgoing mortgagees log into the PEXA platform, and complete their necessary tasks to ensure settlement can proceed.At this stage, final document checks are performed to ensure accuracy and completeness, stamp duty and other payments are usually made, together with the balance of the purchase price. And the most important part… the property registration details are transferred to the new owner, whereby the conveyance is then concluded! Conveyancing explained – Part 1 Nadine Stevens Senior Solicitor Melea Mullard Lawyers (02) 4423 7011 55 Meroo St, Bomaderry admin@meleamullard.com.au CONVEYANCING IN PLAIN ENGLISH