Residential

Residential Conveyancing

Residential conveyancing is the buying and selling of residential properties such as units, houses, apartments, including off the plan apartments, or vacant blocks of land.

Buying a residential property

Vendors Statement and Contract of Sale (see conveyancing)

Land transfer duty concessions

When purchasing a residential home, you may be eligible for the following concessions:

– First home buyers grant
– Principle place of residence duty reduction
– Pension Exemption
– Principle Place of Residence Concession

We can determine whether you are eligible for these concessions and prepare and lodge the appropriate State Revenue Office forms on your behalf as part of the buying process.

Eligibility for the Grant is limited to buyers of new homes. For contracts entered into on or after 1 July 2013 to build or purchase a new home, a payment of up to $10,000 is available for eligible first home buyers. For contracts entered into prior to 1 July 2013, a payment of up to $7000 is payable to eligible first home buyers. This grant is not means-tested nor is it restricted by the price of the property for contracts entered into prior to 1 January 2010.

The Victorian Government offers eligible first home buyers a duty reduction when they purchase a new or established home. The duty reduction applies where you buy a principal place of residence valued at not more than $600,000 and where the settlement date is on or after 1 July 2011.

A Principal Place of Residence (PPR) concession is a concessional rate of duty that applies to transfers of property where the contract of sale is entered into on or after 1 January 2007 and the land purchased is intended to be occupied as a PPR.

The applicable concessional rate of duty depends on the dutiable value of your PPR and the date on which the contract to purchase the PPR was entered into.
If you are a concession card holder, you may be entitled to the exemption or concession for eligible pensioners. A list of the concession cards that attract an exemption are available on the State

Revenue Office Website.

For further exemptions and concession you may wish to refer to the State Revenue office website: www.sro.vic.gov.au

Off the plan purchases

Vendors can enter into contracts with potential buyers on the basis that the landowner (vendor) will sub-divide the land, and if the subdivision is successful the sale will be completed. Usually, the vendor has a limited time (from 18 months to 3 years) to have the land sub-divided. If the land cannot be sub-divided within the time set out in the contracts, the contracts can be cancelled, and the purchasers will get their money back.

The vendor has plans prepared, showing the land divided into smaller lots. Potential purchasers select lots as depicted in the plans, and when the land is subdivided, the purchasers will eventually receive individual titles for the blocks of land they have chosen.

It is important for an off the plan purchaser to be aware that settlement is unlikely to take place on the specified date, that settlement can be postponed for weeks, or even months, and in extreme cases for years. This must be taken into account when arranging finance, particularly where the purchaser’s finance approval is likely to expire after a set period of time, and there is the risk that finance approval may lapse before settlement takes place. Often the contract has a provision which allows the purchaser to pay the deposit by way of a bank guarantee or deposit bond and we cancheck the contract and advise you of this possibility.

Many purchasers buy off the plan for the following benefits:

– Land transfer duty savings
– Lower purchase price
– Time to save for deposit
– Choice of fixtures and fittings

The services we provide include drafting off the plan contracts tailored to your development which includes the plan of subdivision and fixtures and fittings. If you are purchasing an off the plan property then we can advise you in relation to the contract of sale and conduct the conveyancing of the transaction from start to finish.
Caveats

As a precaution against other persons seeking to deal with the property that you are in the process of buying, you can instruct us to lodge a Caveat on the Certificate of Title. A Caveat is a document which is identified as a ‘Notice’ on the Title that indicates that you are in the process of dealing with the property by way of purchase Contract. It is a ‘Notice’ to any and all other parties that may wish to deal with the property Title that you are in the process of buying that property.

Selling a residential property

Vendors Statement
Before a property is sold, you are required to provide the buyer with a Section 32 statement. We can prepare this statement on your behalf and forward it to your nominated Sales Agent.

The information that the Section 32 Statement must contain is set out in section 32 of the Sale of Land Act 1962. It is also known as a vendor’s statement.
You sign the Section 32 statement, a legal document that must be factually accurate and complete. If it contains incorrect or insufficient information, a buyer may be able to withdraw from the sale or take legal action.

Usually, the agent makes the document available to prospective buyers before the sale or auction. A prospective buyer may have the statement checked by his or her own legal practitioner or conveyancer before purchase.

The Section 32 statement contains information about the property’s title, including:

• mortgages
• covenants
• easements
• zoning
• outgoings (for example, rates)
• bushfire prone area report if located in a bushfire-prone area.

If your property is part of an Owners Corporation then an Owners Corporation Certificate will need to be included in the Section 32 Statement and we can contact the Manager of your Owners Corporation to arrange this for you.

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