It is illegal in Queensland to have conveyancing companies owned by Licensed Conveyancers. All paid conveyancing work in Queensland must be done by a Law Firm. These must comply with the rules and regulations of a Legal Profession Act which is administered by the Queensland Law Society and Legal Services Commission. Licensed Conveyancers and Paralegals can be employed in these law firms run as conveyancing companies, but all work must be supervised by a Solicitor.

When you are ready to make an offer, the Real Estate Agent will give you the formal Contract of Sale. You will sign the contract with the price on it and the Seller will either counter sign the Contract and therefore accept the price, or possibly make a counter-offer. The Real Estate Agent manages this process until a price is agreed upon.

The Contract becomes effective when it is dated. (A copy of the contract is sent to the Seller’s Conveyancer.) The Seller’s signed copy goes to your Conveyancer.

There is a cooling-off period of 5 business days. This lets you pull out of the Contract without a reason at any time in the 5 business days from you receiving the contract. It covers situations such as; you have bought without legal advice (e.g. on the spot at a Saturday inspection), or you need to get finance approval or have a building and pest inspection done (in the case of buying a house) or have a Strata Inspection Report done (in the case of buying a unit) or you have just reconsidered your decision to buy. This is your “get out of jail free” card. But the cost is .25% of the purchase price if you exercise your cooling-off rights.

There is no cooling-off if you buy at an auction so you need to have finance approved and a building and pest report done before the auction.

The amount of the deposit is negotiated. The higher the deposit the more attractive the offer is to the Seller – especially if there is more than one Buyer making an offer. The deposit is paid into the Real Estate Agent’s trust account. You are better off not letting the Seller have the deposit until you own the house.

If you don’t have the money (it could be tied-up in your sale or is coming from your Lender who is lending you the entire purchase price) you could buy what is called a Deposit Guarantee Bond. This ensures that if you breach the Contract and you have to forfeit the deposit that the Deposit Guarantee Bond will pay it for you. It won’t always be accepted by a Seller and it won’t always be available to a Buyer so don’t presume you can get one.

1. Insurance
If you are buying a house you should insure it no later than 24 hours after the contract is dated. If the house is destroyed before you become the owner, you are still bound to buy the land and pay the full price. If you are borrowing, your Lender will make you take out insurance well before they give you the money to buy the house and will insist that their name is on the Policy as an interested person.

If you are buying a unit, there is no need to insure the property because the building is owned by the Body Corporate – all you own is the space in the building that is your unit and you should insure the inside of the unit within 24 hours after the contract is dated.

2. Searching
After the Contract becomes unconditional your Conveyancer will now make enquires to test the guarantees the Seller has put into the Contract.

These guarantees include:

Common-sense may indicate that all searches may not be needed. Discuss this with your Conveyancer.

3. Satisfying Your Lender’s Conditions
The Lender will want to know that when they hand over the money that they are getting what they need to register the Mortgage. Your Conveyancer will meet the bank’s conveyancing requirements.

4. Paying Transfer Duty on the Contract (also known as Stamp Duty)
The Contract is the written evidence of the terms under which you are buying.

Transfer Duty (a government tax) must be paid on the Contract within 30 days of the Contract becoming unconditional or at settlement. This is because the Department of Natural Resources & Mines will not let your Lender register the Mortgage unless the Transfer Duty has been paid on the transfer document. The Lender will want to register the Mortgage as soon as possible after it lends you the money, so everything has to be done before they hand over their money.

Transfer Duty is calculated on a sliding scale and whether you are going to live in the home or rent it out. Click here for information on how Stamp Duty is calculated.

If you are a First Home Buyer you could get a First Home Owner Grant and a Stamp Duty concession. For more information to see if you are eligible for a concession, click here.

There are also exemptions from Stamp Duty regarding the transfer of ½ share of a home to a spouse or part of a divorce where joint ownership is being split.

5. The Transfer
The Transfer is a legal document which is lodged at the Department of Natural Resources & Mines. This is where land ownership information is kept. The effect of the Transfer is to register you as the owner of the home. It is prepared by your Conveyancer and the details on it must exactly match the Contract and the details on the Mortgage otherwise there will be issues at the Stamp Duty Office and the conveyancing process stops until the problems are sorted out. This can be time consuming, complicated and stressful if you are leaving the payment of Stamp Duty to the last moment – something you should NEVER do. Some examples of what can go wrong could be spelling differences (Elisabeth not Elizabeth), middle names on one document but not the other, typographical errors.

6. Notice of Sale (Form 24)
Your Conveyancer also needs to prepare the Notice of Sale. This notifies the Council, Water Board and other government departments of the sale and gives them your details so they know where to send your notices. The Notice is lodged with the Transfer (and the Mortgage if there is one) at the Department of Natural Resources & Mines. The Lender lodges these documents if there is a Mortgage, otherwise your Conveyancer will.

7. Settlement Figures
Handing over the money to pay for the home and getting the legal documents so you have ownership of the house can be transferred to you (the Buyer), is called “Settlement”.

To work out how much to hand over at Settlement, all council rates, water usage, body corporate levies (in the case of a unit) and taxes on the home will be divided fairly between the Buyer and the Seller based on the number of days that each own the home. These amounts are called “the adjustments”. The Buyer’s Conveyancer puts these figures together from the information they extract from the searches and sends the figures to the Seller’s Conveyancer.

The Seller’s Conveyancer then agrees to the figures (or not – in which case they are negotiated) and tells the Buyer’s Conveyancer how to make out the cheques for Settlement. The Seller and Buyer’s Conveyancers then set a time and place for Settlement. Settlement usually happens at the office of the person/entity who holds title to the property e.g. the Seller’s bank.

8. What if You Want To Move In Before Paying For the Home?
This is called “taking early possession”. As a rule it is not popular with the Seller and their Conveyancer will usually advise them not to agree. There is a saying: “possession is 9/10ths of the Law”. Once someone is in the house it is very hard to get them out.

What if the sale doesn’t go through because of any of the following examples; you get sick, you are a couple who are getting a divorce, you discover problems with the house, or it burns down? It is therefore the Seller that is taking all the risks.

It is possible for early possession to happen. It could even be a condition of purchase. The terms of the possession are covered by the standard printed Contract. It is not covered by Tenancy Law because it is not a rental. It is a License to occupy the house.

1. Final Inspection
You now need to check that:

2. Keys
The house keys are usually left at the Real Estate Agent’s office and can be picked up from there after Settlement.

3. Final Search (for paper settlements only)
On Settlement day your Conveyancer will do another search of the title at the Department of Natural Resources & Mines in Brisbane, to make sure no one has registered their interest in the land e.g. a creditor, a de facto partner, business partner, or anyone else who claims they own the land or part of it.

4. Settlement Itself
You don’t need to be there. For paper settlements, the Seller’s Conveyancer will hand over the Transfer and the Notice of Sale and your Conveyancer will hand over the money and a letter for the Real Estate Agent authorising them to release the deposit. Your Lender will take possession of the documents as they need to have these in order to lodge the Mortgage. For PEXA electronic settlements, the process is all done online. No paperwork or cheques need to be handed over.

5. After Settlement
The Seller’s Conveyancer will notify the Real Estate Agent that the sale has gone through and authorise them to release the keys to you as the Buyer.

Your Conveyancer will get in touch with you to let you know that Settlement has gone through. They will also send you a Settlement statement showing how all the moneys have been dealt with.

If you are buying a unit, your Conveyancer will notify the Body Corporate of your details (as the new owner) so they will know to whom to send the Notices of Levies. Notices of Levies include building insurance, maintenance and a fund for future maintenance and repairs to the building.

If there is no Lender, your Conveyancer will arrange for the Transfer, the Notice of Sale and the Discharge of the Mortgage from the Seller to be lodged at the Department of Natural Resources & Mines in Brisbane. After you are registered as the owner, your Conveyancer will let you know that you have been registered as the new owner and will send you a Registration Confirmation Statement.