Our property law team are seasoned professionals who have done pretty much every type of property transaction imaginable. They bring decades of experience to the table and use all of that skill and knowledge to review your contracts to ensure that you are protected when entering into an enormous transaction like buying real estate, and to ensure that you are actually getting what you have been promised by the vendor. What follows is an explanation of what we do that is different from other law firms, in order to make sure that you are confident in your property purchase.
Step 1 – Reviewing the Contract
When reviewing your contract our lawyers thoroughly read through every word on every single page of the contract, review the various diagrams in the contract, and send you an annotated version of the contract, together with a written letter of advice. This ensures that key findings are brought to your attention, and nothing is missed.
Step 2 – Discussing the Contract with You
Once you’ve been provided with the information in step one, we’ll schedule a call to take you through the contract we have annotated for you, so that we can make certain that you understand key provisions, and identify key aspects of your purchase such as the lot you are buying, drainage diagrams, and planning requirements. We also use this as an opportunity to take your instructions and get an understanding of your personal circumstances such as why you are buying the property and what you may need in the contract in order for the transaction to be viable. This ensures that we can tailor our advice to your specific needs, every single time.
Step 3 – Negotiating Amendments
Once we have a firm grasp of your needs in relation to your property purchase, we can reach out to the vendor’s solicitors on your behalf to conduct further due diligence and to negotiate any required changes to the contract.
If anything is or is not agreed, we’ll usually jump on another call with you to explain what the further changes (or lack of agreed changes) means for you in light of the general risks associated with the purchase, and also in light of your proposed use of the property.
If you’re happy with the state of the contract, we then assist you to arrange signing and exchange of contracts.
Step 4 – Providing you with Support Up until Settlement
Once contracts are exchanged, we then ensure that you meet all of the compliance requirements to purchase the property. This will include things such as preparing declarations for the tax office, arranging payment of stamp duty, and assisting with obtaining any government grants.
We’ll also be dealing with the vendor’s lawyers on your behalf which will include making requisitions on title (a process where we ask the vendor between 25-70 different questions about the property and review their replies to ensure that there are no defects in the title to the property), we conduct further due diligence searches to test the warranties that the vendor has provided to you, we check for hidden outstanding rate bills such as land tax, council rates, and water rates to ensure that you don’t inherit the previous owners outstanding bills, and we confirm final settlement figures and arrange settlement with the vendor’s lawyers.
If you are using a bank to finance the purchase, we’ll also work closely with your lender to ensure that they have the funds ready in time for settlement.
On the day of settlement, we take care of the whole settlement process for you electronically, and will notify you on the day once settlement is complete.
At Thornton & King we provide an industry leading level of service and diligence, to ensure that you receive the right advice, and are supported through your conveyancing transaction. If you’d like to speak to one of our expert property lawyers, give us a call or submit an enquiry now.
