Conveyancers are specialists who have undertaken formal education and are therefore qualified to provide expert advice in relation to matters of conveyancing law. Conveyancers do not handle other legal matters such as criminal matters, personal injury claims and Family Law.
This means that the attention of your conveyancer is focused purely on property.
Gazumping occurs when at the last minute a vendor refuses to formalise a firm agreement to sell to the purchaser – in order to accept a higher offer.
This can be an extremely frustrating outcome for a purchaser, but unfortunately in Australia it is assumed that a purchaser understands that a sale has not taken place until the contract has been fully executed (signed by both parties), and that a purchaser who claims to have been “gazumped” has failed to understand the law as it applies to real estate sales.
It is not uncommon for a vendor to tell a purchaser that their offer will be accepted, and then to sell to someone else for a higher price. This can even occur at real estate auction as well (the auctioneer calls “sold”, but the vendor refuses to sign the contract and later sells to another person for a higher price).
If you are gazumped, neither the agent nor the vendor is obliged to compensate you for any money you may have spent on legal advice, inspection reports, finance application costs or inquiries.
However, your “expression of interest” payment (if you have paid one) must be refunded to you in full.
Settlement is when your transaction is finalised and the purchase funds are exchanged for the title to the property. If you are buying your home this is the day you will receive the keys (generally a very exciting day!)
Stamp duty is a tax imposed by the NSW government and is applicable on all purchases in NSW. Stamp Duty is calculated on the purchase price of the property. A link to the Office of State Revenue Calculator can be found here if you would like to determine the stamp duty for a particular property price.
A disbursement is an expense incurred on your behalf during the process of searching and obtaining property enquiries and certificates from local government authorities or local councils etc.
No. An offer and acceptance is not legally binding until a contract is exchanged. However, it can be a good idea to have a preliminary check of the contract. There may be something in the contract that may influence the price you are willing to offer.
If you are buying at Auction, it is more important to have the contract reviewed, as after the Auction, there can be no amendments to the contract conditions.
At Impero Conveyancing, we offer a free contract review service to provide you with that extra peace of mind before you negotiate the price.
A cooling-off period, is a period of 5 business days from the date your contracts are exchanged. Within this 5 day period, the purchaser has the opportunity to finalise their finance, arrange pest or building inspections or any other due diligence they may require for the property. If the purchaser pulls out during this 5 day period they forfeit 0.25% of the purchase price to the vendor.
In a usual process of a sale/purchase transaction, there is allowed a 5 business day cooling off period. A 66W Certificate is a certificate signed by your Conveyancer that is provided to the Vendor on exchange that waives the rights to the cooling off period. The certificate is a statement that your Conveyancer has explained to you what it means to waive your rights to the cooling off period.