Things to consider when buying a property

There are many things to consider when buying your home or investment property. We have prepared a series of videos with the types of specialists you will need to use when buying your property. In this video, we talk with Josh Bignell, a partner at RMB Lawyers, experts in property conveyancing. RMB is the oldest legal firm in the Illawarra, and help in excess of 1,000 people each year with their property transactions.  

Perry: Welcome Josh.

Josh: Thank you, Perry

Perry: If you’re thinking about buying a home or investment property, what are the legal things you need to take into account?

Josh:  Three  most important things you think about Perry when you’re going to buy a property are: ensuring that a contract is reviewed by a lawyer, making sure that your formal finance approve before we exchange the contract and making sure that we have a thorough investigation of the property

Perry: Okay… so what’s involved in that review of the contract?

Josh: The contract talks about two important issues. It talks about all the legal terms of the contract but then all also all the legal searches.  The searches review and talk about the type of property that the person will own and then discuss issues such as council zoning, council historical information such as are there any issues with flood, fill, landslip and also the location of the Sydney Water sewer line.  The contract is crucial as a vehicle for running the matter from the point of exchange then through to settlement and making sure that all the terms that the buyer needs to have in the contract are legitimized and legalized in that process.

Perry: So finance is a crucial aspect?

Josh: Most definitely! One of the roles that we have is really to ensure that prior to exchange of contracts that the purchaser has formal finance approval in place. The main reason being that they are coming themselves to a very expensive purchase and without the financial backing behind it, the potential is there for them to lose their 10% deposit plus then be sued by damages from the seller if they don’t complete the contract on time.  So having formal finance approval in place prior to exchange is paramount.

Perry: Ok, like investigation, I imagine it’s really important to make sure you are getting what you are actually paying for.

Josh: Most definitely and the most important term in the contract from the legal point of view is, Buyer Beware. The contract says to every purchaser that they must investigate what they are buying, and really the crucial aspect to that is looking at the physicality of the property so pest and building reports perhaps sometimes strata restriction reports if it’s a strata property and then looking at the legality of the property.  Are the any legal issues or problems with any of the structures built? Do we need to get council involved to review and inspect the property again? These are all the issues that we need to have a conversation about with the purchaser to ensure they are not buying a lemon.

So the important legal considerations you need to think about in buying a home is ensuring that the contract is properly in place, make sure that the finance is in place prior to signing and exchanging the contract.  And then also that all the appropriate investigations are completed to ensure that you receive the property that you believe you’re buying.

Perry: Well thank you josh, thank you for sharing your expertise today. 

Josh: Thank you Perry. 

 

Thanks for watching this video. Another in the series to help you with your property decisions. My name is Perry Beebe, and we’ll talk again soon.