When setting out to buy your first home, these are exactly the questions you may be asking yourself. In a nutshell, a conveyancer is a professional that helps you handle all the legal particulars that arise when buying a house. Property solicitors do much the same as conveyancers but have significantly more legal training. So:
Conveyancers arrange the legal transfer of ownership of a property from the seller to the buyer.
A solicitor can also do the conveyancing, but they have more expertise if legal curveballs arise.
So now we know what conveyancers are, let’s see what they can do for us! A good conveyancer will:
You can engage a conveyancer from the moment you start looking for a property, or you can wait until you’ve found something you want to buy; but you’ll likely want one as soon as any contracts are waved at you by a real estate agent.
These contracts are the first legal document you’ll come across on your road to home ownership and are necessary when you make an offer on a home or when you want to bid for a home at auction.
Your conveyancer will review the contracts, advise you of any risks, and help to protect your interests by identifying any terms that might need to be negotiated on your behalf or that you wish to have altered. These could be, for example: longer settlement periods, a reduced deposit, and/or additional terms and conditions.
Thorough review of the contracts will ensure you’re buying exactly what you intend to buy and that you have a reference point if the property isn’t in the condition you expect when you get the keys.
Another thing a conveyancer does is research property titles, as they have access to information from the state government regarding the land your desired property is perched upon. In most cases there won’t be much to relate back to you, but knowledge of any main electrical cables and sewerage/drainage running in or close to your property is good to have.
There’s also the possibility that renovations might have been done in the past without the proper channels of planning and approval being sought. This will be a big issue if you decide to renovate and need planning permission for a section of the property that turns out to have been illegally constructed.
You can anticipate that some pre-sale beautifications will have been made by owners keen to move their property quickly and for a maximum price. What you don’t know is what the underlying reasons might be for these beautifications. Getting a legitimate building and pest inspection is another hook-up your conveyancer will sort out for you and with the keen eye of a professional, shiny veneers will soon crumble.
If an agent is applying pressure to sign a contract quickly without going through this step, there may be a reason. The selling agent will more often than not be on the side of the seller, so it’s important to have your conveyancer in your corner.
If your property is part of a strata, the first and most important piece of information a conveyancer will ascertain is the cost of your annual strata fees. Your conveyancer will also be able to tell you straight-up if that’s a reasonable amount of money to be paying for strata fees considering the upkeep on the property.
Another thing that any good conveyancer will look at is the minutes from the last general meeting of your strata committee. This is important as it will let you know if there are any ongoing problems with the building that houses your property.
This is a fairly specific thing so let’s go through an example.
Let’s say there’s a vacant block next door to your place. You would want to know (before you buy) if that block was due to become a block of apartments in the near future, wouldn’t you? Even if you aren’t fussed about construction noise, you might be able to use the knowledge to your advantage when negotiating the price. Or, maybe you’re a shift worker or have a young family. You’re going to want that information before being awoken every weekday by circular saws, drills, and worst of all — commercial radio.
The day your first house settles, your conveyancer will — with an expert hand — work the levers and press all the buttons required to effectively and efficiently finalise the sale. The good news is, they will also subtract their fee at the time of settlement giving you one less piece of admin to think about. This is commonly worked it into all of the paperwork when sorting out the finer points of the sale.
A good conveyancer or property solicitor really will have accounted for everything.
For more information about conveyancers and the difference between them and property solicitors, we’ve got you covered with a more in-depth article.
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