Contracts and deposits
If you want to buy a home, land or investment property you’ll have to sign a sale contract. The legal work involved in preparing the sale contract, mortgage, and other related documents, is called conveyancing. Its possible to do your own conveyancing, however, most people get a licensed conveyancer or solicitor to do the work for them.
The sale contract
By law, a residential property cannot be put on the market until a sale contract has been drawn up. You have the right to examine the contract at any time once a property is on the market. If particular property interests you, get a copy of the sale contract as soon as possible so you can ask your solicitor or conveyancer to review it. You should have this done before signing a sale contract.
Exchanging contracts and paying a deposit
Exchanging sale contracts is the legal part of buying a home. Before the exchange, the agreement is usually just verbal and not binding. Up until you exchange contracts either you or the vendor have the right to change your minds.
After you have discussed the contract with your solicitor or licensed conveyancer and all the proper inquiries have been made, and after all the financial arrangements are in place, you will be ready to exchange contracts. There will be two copies of the sale contract: one for you and one for the vendor. You each sign one copy before they are swapped or exchanged. This can be done by hand or post and is usually arranged by your solicitor, conveyancer or the agent. If the agent is handling the exchange, you must expressly authorise them to do so.
At the time of the exchange, you will be required to pay a deposit, usually 10% of the purchase price. Following exchange, you have a financial interest in the property so its wise to get it insured.
Note: A contract has not been made and is not legally binding before the exchange of contracts and the payment of a 10% deposit.
Cooling-off period
When you buy a residential property in NSW there is a five-business-day cooling-off period after you exchange sale contracts. During this period you have the option to get out of the contract as long as you give written notice. The cooling-off period starts as soon as you exchange and ends at 5 pm on the fifth business day.
A cooling-off period does not apply if you buy a property at auction or exchange contracts on the same day as the auction after it is passed in.
You can waive the cooling-off period by giving the seller a 66W certificate. This is a certificate that complies with Section 66W of the Conveyancing Act 1919. The certificate needs to be signed by your solicitor or conveyancer.
If you use your cooling-off rights and withdraw from the contract during the five-business-day period, you will have to pay the seller 0.25% of the purchase price. This works out to be $250 for every $100,000.
Sometimes, there are more buyers looking for homes than there are properties on the market. This is called a seller’s market. In this case, you may want to organise a quick contract exchange. This way you can reduce the possibility of someone beating your offer and get your building and pest inspections done during the cooling-off period. You will still be able to back out if there is a problem. However, it is important to have the contract checked by your solicitor or conveyancer before you sign it.
It is possible to waive, reduce or extend the cooling-off period with the consent of the seller. If your solicitor or conveyancer has examined certificates from the appropriate authorities, a pest and building inspection have been done and your finance has been approved, then deciding to waive the cooling-off period could make your offer more attractive to the seller.
Settlement
This information is available courtesy of Fair Trading NSW
www.oft.nsw.gov.au
