Buying a residential property in Victoria?
We’ll review any*# residential contract of sale and vendor statement (section 32) for free in 2-3 business days.
* Except for old general law, company share stratum title and retirement villages.
# You must be an Australian citizen or permanent resident. We don’t act for superannuation funds.
Please note that we will not review your mortgage documents - we do not issue solicitor certificates or review any mortgage / guarantor documents. And we don’t review building contracts - only the land purchase contract.
We are a law firm, not a conveyancing company. A lawyer of over ten years’ experience will personally review your contract and vendor statement.
We are a digital law firm: everything is done via phone, email and post – we don’t meet in person.
How does it work?
1. Find a property that you love and would like to buy. Make sure you inspect it to be sure, but please don’t sign any contract yet!
2. Send us an email and attach the vendor statement (section 32) and contract of sale (if the contract is available). Please include your mobile phone number in your email and, if it’s an off the plan contract, which lot/apartment number you are interested in, and please let us know if anyone referred you to us (so we can thank them!).
3. We’ll review the documents you have sent us within 3 business days (as soon as we can if you urgently need to put an offer in). Then we’ll send you a voice message on WhatsApp which will be our contract review advice. We don’t provide written reports, but we will email you the text for any special conditions that may need to go into your offer (such as subject to a building and pest inspection). After you listen to our contract review message, you are welcome to ask any questions (it’s much easier to catch us on WhatsApp, SMS and email than ringing). And if you’d prefer a live chat on the phone, we can certainly arrange a mutually convenient time to do that, including if you are overseas.
4. If you buy the property, we will email you a questionnaire requesting your personal details and then we’ll invoice you for half of our professional fee (half is $647.50 + GST, see How much does it cost below). Our second invoice (for the second half of our professional fee, which is another $647.50 + GST) will be issued about a week before the settlement date, and this second invoice gets automatically paid at settlement out of the funds you and your bank (if you’re taking out a loan) contribute. Our second invoice will also include an itemised list of any out-of-pocket disbursement costs we incurred on your behalf, so you can reimburse us for these third-party expenses (see How much does it cost below).
5. If you don’t buy the property, there is no charge for our work reviewing the contract#. And we’d be happy to review another contract for another property too, no problem. We don’t have an official limit on how many contracts we’ll look at, but in fairness to other clients, we can only look at one contract/vendor statement for a client at a time.
How much does it cost?
$1,295.00 + GST is our professional fee for conveyancing, plus any out-of-pocket disbursement costs we incur.
Out-of-pocket disbursement costs include property searches and certificates, because we often need to order a new title search, water certificate, Council rates notice, Owners Corporation certificate and land tax certificate in order to prepare pro rata apportioned outgoings for settlement. If we can avoid you incurring these costs (such as by ringing a Council for a rates fee payment update over the phone, or ordering a free bill update from the local water company), we certainly will! We may also need to order a company search if any party is a company, and there is also a compulsory PEXA user fee, plus caveat fees (if relevant) and any other third-party costs we incur on your behalf.
So how much out-of-pocket disbursement costs should you expect in total? Off-the-plan properties are usually around $200.00 + GST, houses are usually around $300.00 + GST, and apartments/units with an active Owners Corporation (body corporate) are usually $400 + GST, or $500-$600 + GST if there is more than one active Owners Corporation, because we may need to order a certificate for each Owners Corporation listed on the title in order to prepare for settlement (apartments in bigger buildings tend to belong to more than one Owners Corporation).
Don’t worry: we will confirm which out-of-pocket costs rate applies to your property before we commence any work. And we don’t charge for faxes, phone calls and other greedy things.
~Note: the above excludes the $59.00 per person Verification of Identity fee payable to ZipID, as part of the compulsory identity check process that all people transacting with the Land Titles Office must undertake. And there is also an option to get your identity verified for free – we’ll explain everything!
# Note: if you sign a contract we have reviewed, but later terminate the contract (e.g. because you can’t obtain finance, or because it failed a building and pest inspection), then half of our professional fee + GST may be payable (no out-of-pocket costs applicable).
Please note:
- Default notices and licence agreements each attract additional fees.
- If you are buying multiple lots at once, please contact us to obtain a personalised quote.
We carry full professional indemnity insurance and operate an audited solicitor trust account.
