Step by Step
House Sale Conveyancing Process in NSW (and Sydney)
Conveyancing process for sellers of a house in Sydney and NSW in 6 steps.
Step 1
Ordering the Contract and required Vendor Disclosure Documents. Where, how and what to order?
Step 2
Filling in the first 3 pages of the Contract.
Step 3
Other documents to add on to the Contract and Vendor Disclosure Documents, to make this into a full contract.
Step 4
What to do on day of Exchange – where to sign on the Contract, how much deposit will be received?
Step 5
As a vendor, what must be done immediately or not long after day of Exchange.
Step 6
What must we do a couple of days before Settlement, what must we check on the Settlement Adjustment Sheet, what happens on Settlement day.
If possible, please read these steps sequentially, from Step 1 to Step 6. These are essentially all the steps solicitors take in a house sale conveyancing process in NSW and Sydney, from initial preparation of contract to the final settlement day.
We hope you enjoy the next steps and feel that you learn something from them.
STEP 1: PREPARATION OF CONTRACT – PART 1 OF 3
Summary of what we will learn in this webpage:
- Where to go online to find out the title reference of a property from a street address
- How to use an information broker like SAI Global to order the “Contract for the sale and purchase of land 2018 edition”
- What are Vendor Disclosure Documents or Prescribed Documents
- How to use SAI Global platform to order Vendor Disclosure Documents
- What constitues a valid contract, so much so that a property is now ready to be put on the market for sale
Step 1: Order the “Contract for the sale and purchase of land 2018 edition” (we call this Contract for short), and other required documents (normally called Vendor Disclosure Documents or Prescribed Documents).
As the Contract is copyright protected, we need to buy a copy of the Contract online. Information brokers sell such contracts online for between $15 to $20. We will use an information broker called SAI Global to show how to order such a Contract, AND to order other required documents that must be included in the contract. These other required documents are what lawyers normally call Vendor Disclosure Documents. The Contract, together with these Vendor Disclosure Documents, make up for a valid contract that one can use to sell the property by oneself, or send to a real estate agent marketing the property for sale.
Read More (Step 1)
We shall define:
“Contract for the sale and purchase of land 2018 edition” = Contract
Contract + Vendor Disclosure Documents = valid contract or contract
You can find online examples of what valid contracts look like.
To see a sample copy of what the copyrighted Contract looks like unfilled, click on Sample Contract 2018 Edition.
Before ordering any Contracts or Vendor Disclosure Documents, we need to know the title reference of the property we are selling. Because what we have now is just the address of the property we are selling.
(Note: Title Reference is a unique number used to identify a title of property. It is often presented in the format 1/10222, where 1 is the lot number and 10222 is the Deposited Plan Number. If it is a strata unit that is for sale, its title reference may look something like 23/SP10223, where 23 is the lot number and 10223 is the Strata Plan Number.)
To find out the title reference of any Sydney or NSW property, click on NSW LRS portal page.
After accepting the terms and conditions, the web page looks like:
Then click on Street address inquiry and we’ll be asked to enter the property address, after which we will be given the title reference for this property.
Using Dye & Durham to order Contract and Vendor Disclosure Documents:
To use Dye & Durham, if we are only using it to make a one-time order, we need to create a one-off account.
The below web page is from SAI Global, bought over by Dye & Durham in about Feb 2022. The Dye & Durham account creation web page will look similar to the below. In this section, we’ll be using SAI Global screenshots for illustration purposes.
Once the account is created with SAI Global and we logged in, the web page looks like:
Now, we shall type in something for the Matter Reference box, it is just a name of our choice for our own reference.
Then, to order the Contract, tick on “Electronic Contract for Sale – 2018 Edition”. The web page will now look like:
We will notice that when “Electronic Contract for Sale – 2018 Edition” is ticked, some other documents (or certificates as they are also called) are also automatically selected. These other documents (as seen above) are:
– Title Search Online
– Planning Certificate Section 10.7
– Sewer Service Diagram
– Land Tax Sec 47 Certificate and
– Copy of Plan and Plan Documents
These documents / certificates are also called Vendor Disclosure Documents.
It is now a requirement, as part of the Vendor Disclosure Documents, to also order the Sewer Mains Location Reference Sheet. So we need to tick on it too, and then click Next.
We will now be prompted to enter details about the title reference, property address, the registered proprietor(s) name and address, etc. The web page looks like:
As we can see, this is quite a long web page. We do NOT need to enter answers for all the questions listed here. A trick is to enter answers for “Title Reference” panel, “Property Address” panel, “Office of State Revenue Details” panel, “Registered Proprietors” panel and click Next. Whatever information SAI Global needs before allowing us to proceed to purchase will show up in a red box, prompting our answers to these.
The next web page to show up is the Purchase web page (Note: words in red and blue are mocked-up for illustration purposes and for explanation). Under the Certificates heading, the documents we ticked on the order page after we first logged in, together with these documents’ prices, are displayed:
After clicking on the Purchase button, a View Order web page will then show up:
(Note: we ordered more certificates in the previous Purchase web page than it’s shown in this View Order web page. This is because this View Order web page did not follow on directly from the previous Purchase web page. This View Order web page is from another purchase we did.
To get this particular View Order web page results, we would have ordered and purchased
– Title Search 2/456789
– Copy of Plan – Deposited Plan 456789
– Copy of Plan or Plan Documents – Deposited Plan – 88B 456789
in the Purchase web page.)
What is important in this View Order web page is the follow-on orders. Under the “Follow-on Order (Title Documents)” heading, we can see that there are 4 Dealings. These are follow-on orders because these Dealings would be present in the Title Search document (click to see a Sample Title Search document.)
Out of these Dealings, we do NOT need to order the Dealings for Mortgage and Caveat, but we need to order
– Dealing – Covenant A258147
– Dealing – Easement AK785214
These 2 Dealings are part of the Vendor Disclosure Documents. We shall tick on their boxes and order them.
Finally, at this end of this ordering process,
the following documents will be emailed to the email account we used when signing up to SAI Global:
1. Contract for the sale and purchase of land 2018 edition (this will come in as 2 emails, one for the first 3 pages of the Contract, and another for the next 17 pages of standard clauses that comes with this Contract)
2. Title Search (in our above example, it is for title reference 2/456789)
3. Copy of Plan – Deposited Plan (in our above example, it is for 456789)
4. Copy of Plan or Plan Documents – Deposited Plan – 88B (in our above example, it is for 456789)
5. Dealing – Covenant (in our above example, it is for A258147)
6. Dealing – Easement (in our above example, it is for AK785214)
7. Planning Certificate Section 10.7 (in our above example, this would take 8 days to arrive; but in general this usually takes 1-5 days to arrive in one’s inbox) – Here is a Sample Planning Certificate Section 10.7.
8. Land Tax Sec 47 Certificate – Here is a Sample Land Tax Sec 47 Certificate.
9. Sewer Service Diagram – Here is a Sample Sewer Service Diagram.
10. Sewer Mains Location Reference Sheet – Here is a Sample Sewer Mains Location Diagram.
If the property that is for sale comes with a swimming pool, we will also need to include a certificate of compliance or non-compliance.
All of these documents (except the Land Tax Sec 47 Certificate) put together constitute a valid contract.
Next, we will show how to fill in the first 3 pages of the “Contract for the sale and purchase of land 2018 edition“.
STEP 2: PREPARATION OF CONTRACT – PART 2 OF 3
Summary of what we will learn in this Step 2:
- How to fill in the first 3 pages of the “Contract for the sale and purchase of land 2018 edition”
Step 2: Entering details for the first 3 pages of the “Contract for the sale and purchase of land 2018 edition“.
If an editable Contract has not been ordered from an information broker like SAI Global, please click Sample Contract 2018 Edition and open a sample Contract as reference.
Filling in the 1st page of the Contract:
1. Vendor’s agent – we type in the real estate agent’s firms details like its name, address, phone, fax and email.
If no real estate is involved, we write “Nil intervention by an agent”.
2. Vendor – these must be the same as the registered proprietors’ names on the title search.
3. Vendor’s solicitor – Leave blank if no vendor’s solicitors are involved. If not, this will be the solicitors firm’s name, address, phone, fax and/or email the vendor engages to act on his/her behalf for the sale of this property.
4. Date for completion – by default, it is normally pre-populated as “42nd day after the contract date (clause 15)”. Unless we desire to change this, the norm in Sydney and NSW is for completion to happen 42 days or 6 weeks later.
5. Land – this will normally be pre-populated with the property address and the title reference we entered in SAI Global while ordering this Contract.
Read More (Step 2)
6. Improvements – Tick either of vacant possession or subject to existing tenancies. If the vendor is selling subject to existing tenancies, we will also need to include the lease to the contract. We can also tick if this is a house, or a home unit, and does this sale come with garage, carport, storage space etc.
7. Inclusions – can be ticked by the vendor, or by his/her real estate agent; does this sale include items like blinds, built-ins, insect screens etc.
8. Purchaser – The exact and correct name(s) of the purchaser(s) are written here.
9. Purchaser’s solicitor – The purchaser will normally enter the name, address, phone and/or email of the purchaser’s solicitors firm here.
10. Price, Deposit, Balance – Normally these are filled in by the real estate agent. The price the vendor(s) have sold for, the deposit amount and the balance payable on completion day are entered here.
11. Contract date – this is the date of exchange. When the vendor has confirmed that s/he is selling this property to a particular buyer(s), this is the date where both parties sign on identical copies of this contract.
12. (the bottom of page 1) Signature part – When the vendor(s) are ready to exchange with the purchaser(s), the vendor(s) sign on the vendor line and the vendor’s witness sign on its line beside the vendor line.
Filling in the 2nd page of the Contract:
For a sale of an existing house (or strata unit), we normally leave this page as it is. Unless the property for sale is an investment property, under the “Land Tax is adjustable” heading, we can tick on the box beside ‘yes’ if we want the purchaser to help pay the vendor’s current year’s land tax.
The below shows the top half page of Page 2 of the Contract, with “Land Tax is adjustable” box ticked ‘yes’:
Filling in the 3rd page of the Contract:
We will normally tick what’s shown below, however, it is OK even if left unticked.
STEP 3: PREPARATION OF CONTRACT – PART 3 OF 3
Summary of what we will learn in this Step 3:
- 3 other supplementary documents we normally include in the full contract
- Namely, “Conditions of Sale by Auction”, “Special Conditions” and “Requisitions on Title” documents
- Why are Vendor Disclosure Documents (or Prescribed Documents) important
Step 3: Now that we have ordered the “Contract for the sale and purchase of land 2018 edition” and other required documents (Vendor Disclosure Documents) that must go with this Contract – thereby creating a valid contract, we normally add a few more documents for compilation.
1. Conditions of Sale by Auction (if the vendor engages a real estate agent and sells the property by auction)
To compile a valid contract with these 3 other documents, we will now put together all documents in the following order:
1. Contract for the sale and purchase of land 2018 edition (the first 3 pages, and the standard clauses with the watermarked address in pages 4 to 20)
2. Conditions of Sale by Auction
3. Special Conditions
4. Requisitions on Title
5. Title Search
Read More (Step 3)
6. Copy of Plan – Deposited Plan (could have more than one)
7. Copy of Plan or Plan Documents – Deposited Plan – 88B (could have more than one)
8. Dealing – Covenant (could have none, 1 or >1, depending on how many of these are on the Title Search document)
9. Dealing – Easement (could have none, 1 or >1, depending on how many of these are on the Title Search document)
10. Planning Certificate Section 10.7
11. Sewer Service Diagram
12. Sewer Mains Location Reference Sheet
We will also, between the documents in points 10 and 11 above, put an Occupation Certificate if this house is built after 2004. Swimming pool compliance or non-compliance certificate, Home Owner’s Warranty certificate, Certificate of Currency, if available, will also be included here.
So, here we have it – a FULL, VALID CONTRACT. Ready now to put the property up for sale and forward this contract to any prospective purchasers.
A valid contract is very important, because if we fail to even include one of the required documents / certificates, a purchaser has a right to rescind the contract within 14 days of exchange! (The legislation that underpins this is found in clause 17, Conveyancing (Sale of Land) Regulation 2017.)
This is highly undesirable, because after an exchange, in normal circumstances, the contract is binding on both the purchasers and vendors and if the purchaser(s) wants to pull out, s/he normally would have to forfeit the deposit of 10% of the purchase price. Allowing a purchaser to rescind within 14 days of exchange means that this purchaser does NOT need to forfeit the deposit, in fact s/he walks away getting back whatever deposit s/he has paid at exchange!
STEP 4: EXCHANGE
Summary of what we will learn in this Step 4:
- What to do on the day of Exchange
- Where to sign on the contract
- How much deposit will be received
Step 4: Say now the vendor has found a purchaser for the house for sale.
Print out 2 copies of the valid contract (normally the real estate agent engaged by the vendor would do this.) We will call the valid contract / full contract from here on.
On the day of exchange:
1) the vendor(s) signs his/her signature on the line which says vendor on the front page of the Contract. If a real estate agent is involved, s/he will normally sign on the line which says witness. Date the contract where it says “contract date” – this date would be called the date of exchange.
2) the purchaser(s) signs his/her signature on another copy of the full contract; on the line which says purchaser, right at the bottom of the front page of the Contract. If a real estate agent is involved, s/he will normally sign on the line which says witness. Date the contract.
The purchaser will then pay the vendor or the vendor’s real estate agent 1 of the 3 options below:
a) 0.25% deposit (if the vendor agrees to a 5-day cooling off period for the purchaser – this means if the purchaser changes his mind before 5pm on the 5th working day after exchange, he can walk away from the purchase and the vendor keeps the 0.25% deposit. If the purchaser decides to go ahead with the purchase, s/he’ll normally need to top up the deposit amount to 5% or 10% deposit by 5pm of the 5th working day),
b) or 5% deposit if the vendor agrees to accept 5% deposit on exchange,
c) or 10% deposit.
Together with the deposit, the purchaser hands over his signed copy of the full contract to the vendor and likewise, the vendor hands over his signed copy of the full contract to the purchaser. This act of exchanging each signed copy of the full contract with the other party is what is called an EXCHANGE.
STEP 5: AFTER EXCHANGE – THINGS THAT MUST BE DONE
Summary of what we will learn in this Step 5:
- If the vendor has a mortgage, we need to ask the bank for a discharge of mortgage
- It is a requirement to serve the Land Tax Section 47 Certificate, and why must we serve before a certain time
- We may need to apply for the “Foreign Resident Capital Gains Withholding Clearance Certificate”
- How to reply to Requisitions on Title
- If this is a paper settlement, how to fill in the Transfer form
Step 5: After exchange, as a vendor, there is 1, possibly up to 4, things that need to be done between exchange and completion date (also called settlement date; completion and settlement are called interchangeably). Preferably, we will do these right after unconditional exchange.
1) If the property the vendor is selling has a mortgage (there is a mortgage if on the Title Seach document, there is a dealing entry about mortgage to a particular financial institution), obviously the vendor needs to inform the lender (be it Westpac, CBA, or NAB etc) and request for them to discharge his/her mortgage. This could be done by ringing the lender, or go online to fill in what is normally called a Release of Security form and email it off to them. Do this soon after exchange, because it can take lenders up to 3 weeks to discharge the mortgage and be ready for settlement.
2) Serve on the purchaser or the purchaser’s solicitor (by emailing) the Land Tax Section 47 Certificate ,at least 14 days prior to settlement, if this certificate is not already included in the full contract. Service of this document 14 days prior to completion is important because a purchaser does NOT have to settle earlier than 14 days after service!
Read More (Step 5)
3) If the sale price is more than $750,000, the vendor needs to apply for a Foreign resident capital gains withholding clearance certificate from the ATO. Don’t be misled by the word Foreign, it applies to Australian residents! Once this certificate is received from the ATO, the vendor needs to serve (by emailing) it to the purchaser or the purchaser’s solicitor.
Here are more information about capital gains withholding.
4) Reply to requisitions, if the purchaser or the purchaser’s solicitor served on us the Requisitions on Title document we attached in our full contract. (Requisitions on Title are essentially questions a purchaser is entitled to ask the vendor relating to the sale of a property.) For each of the questions, the usual replies are
Noted; or
Vendor relies on contract; or
As far as the vendor is aware, yes, but purchaser to rely on his own enquiries; or
As far as the vendor is aware, no; purchaser to rely on his own enquiries
TRANSFER form
The below does NOT apply to electronic settlement. After 30 June 2019, all lawyers are required to use electronic settlement platforms like PEXA to settle property sale/purchase transactions.
Currently, PEXA only allows lawyers and conveyancers to register with them, and only lawyers and conveyancers can enter details of property sale/purchase transactions on its platform. So unless a vendor chooses to do a paper settlement, which the vendor can either do himself or engage a settlement agent (paper settlement is still an option for a vendor even after 30 June 2019, it is just not an option for lawyers), the vendor will most likely need to engage a lawyer to proceed with electronic settlement. In PEXA, the TRANSFER form we are going to talk about below will be created by the purchaser’s solicitor for the vendor’s solicitor to view and confirm online.
As a vendor, if this is a paper settlement, we expect to receive a physical copy of a TRANSFER form from the purchaser’s solicitor. The TRANSFER can arrive STAMPED or UNSTAMPED. STAMPED means the purchaser has paid the stamp duty to Revenue NSW, or has been exempted from paying stamp duty (because purchaser is a first home buyer buying a property for less than $650,000, say). Regardless of the circumstances of the purchaser(s), as vendor, we want to receive the TRANSFER, stamped or not.
Shown below is what the TRANSFER form sent by the purchaser’s solicitor would look like, in 2 halves, the top half and bottom half:
(Sidenote: the below TRANSFER form does NOT show the inked Stamp.)
Here, we are assuming the sale/purchase price of this house is $650,000, as shown in panel D.
Panels A, C, D, E and H would be pre-filled by the purchaser’s solicitor. As vendor, we just need to check that these information are correct.
Vendor needs only sign on the “Signature of transferor” section, and get a witness to sign and fill in the witness’s details. Then this form is ready for settlement – as in, it would need to be handed over to the purchaser’s solicitor on settlement day.
STEP 6: SETTLEMENT / COMPLETION
Summary of what we will learn in this Step 6:
- What do we expect to receive from the purchaser’s solicitor about 2 weeks prior to the day before Settlement
- As a vendor, we expect to receive the Settlement Adjustment Sheet, and its supporting s603 and s66 certificates
- We go through how to work out the Settlement Adjustment Sheet, and therefore
- How much is the vendor going to put in his pocket from the sale of this property
Step 6:
1) A day or 2 before settlement, we would receive the loan payout figure from the lender. This payout figure is the amount of loan that the vendor still owes the bank and this amount needs to be paid on settlement day for the lender to discharge / release the vendor from the loan.
2) Normally a couple of weeks before till 3-4 days before settlement, we would also receive from the purchaser or the purchaser’s solicitor a settlement adjustment sheet and its supporting s603 and s66 certificates.
s603 is a council rates certificate, it advises the council rates payable.
s66 is a Sydney Water rates certificate, it advises the water rates payable.
3) If this is a paper settlement (ignore this step if it is an electronic settlement): a few days before settlement, we would ring up the lender to ask if it is ready to discharge the mortgage on a particular settlement date, and if it is, we would book a settlement venue, date and time. Then we would ring up the purchaser’s solicitor to book for the same venue, date and time. (For example, the physical settlement venue chosen could be SAI Global Sydney, on a particular date at 2pm.)
Read More (Step 6)
When ringing the bank, we also need it to tell us what the loan payout figure is for that settlement date. Normally, the bank can only confirm the loan payout figure one or two days before settlement. The bank should also tell us how it wants this loan payout to be drawn, i.e. bank cheque drawn should be payable to who? Say if the lender is Westpac, most likely it’ll want its bank cheque drawn payable to Westpac Banking Corporation.
How to work out the final amount a vendor is going to receive:
(Settlement Adjustment Sheet)
- Council Rates, s603 certificate:
The below image shows the middle portion of the sample s603 certificate. In this case, the council rates for this property from 1 July 2018 to 30 June 2019 is $405 + $25 + $931.35 = $1361.35. Rates outstanding is $1020.90.
Normally instead of working out the yearly rates, we ring the council, ask for the rates section, and we would ask what is the rates outstanding and what is the yearly rates, and sometimes the current quarter’s rates. These yearly rates or current quarter’s rates will be used in the settlement adjustment sheet.
- Water Rates, s66 certificate:
Next, the below image shows most of what the sample s66 certificate looks like. In this case, the service charges for the quarter from 01/10/18 to 31/12/18 is $191.50. Water rates outstanding is $194.22. Normally, we would get a verbal update by ringing 1300 361 369, as the water rates outstanding may have changed since this certificate was ordered. It is a computer-generated verbal update, we just need to key in the property number and a computer-generated voice will provide updated information. The quarter rates of $191.50 will be used in the settlement adjustment sheet.
The Settlement Adjustment Sheet, based on the above s603 and s66 certificates figures would look like:
Such an example of the settlement adjustment sheet, the vendor would receive from the purchaser or the purchaser’s solicitor at the latest one to two days before settlement.
Assume in this case that this property is sold for $770,000 and deposit received on exchange is 10% at $77,000. Hence balance outstanding is $693,000. However, this is not what the purchaser will pay on settlement, because s/he still has to pay his portion of council and water rates from the date of settlement.
Assume also our settlement date is 15-Dec-2018.
Let’s look at the panel for Council Rates. $1,361.35 is the council rates from 1 July 2018 to 30 June 2019, taken from the s603 certificate or by ringing the council. The purchaser would have to pay his share of the council rates from 15-Dec-2018 to 30-Jun-2019, because from 15-Dec-2018, s/he is the new owner of the property and hence liable to pay council rates from this day on; i.e. 197 days out of 365 days of $1,361.35 = $734.76. This amount would have to be added to the balance outstanding of $693,000.
Likewise, for the Water Rates panel. The current quarter water rates from 01/10/18 to 31/12/18 is $191.50, taken from the s66 certificate. The purchaser has to allow for water rates from 15-Dec-2018 to 31-Dec-2018, by virtue of him being the new owner; i.e. 16 out of 92 days of $191.50 = $33.30. Again, this amount would have to be added to the balance outstanding of $693,000.00.
So, $693,000.00 + $734.76 + $33.30 = $693,768.06. However, this is still not the final amount payable by the purchaser.
Now, let’s look at the Water Usage Panel.
From the s66 certificate, we see that:
Last Meter Date of Reading was held on 03/10/18.
Average Daily Usage is 0.533kL.
Costs is $2.08 per kL.
Which means the vendor has to allow for water usage between 03/10/18 to the settlement date of 15-Dec-2018, since s/he is the owner till 15-Dec-2018 and liable to pay for his own water usage; i.e. 73 days at 0.533kL per day at $2.08 per kL = $80.93.
Next, say the Title Search of this property shows that there is a mortgage. The lodgement fee charged by NSW Land Registry in 2018 is $141.60 to register a discharge of mortgage. Since it is the vendor’s mortgage, it is his responsibility to pay for this lodgement fee of $141.60. Of course, if there is no mortgage on this property, then the vendor wouldn’t need to pay this $141.60 for lodgement of discharge of mortgage.
So, vendor needs to pay for $80.93 (water usage) + $141.60 (lodgement fee for discharge of mortgage) = $222.53
Finally, the purchaser needs to pay the interim figure $693,768.06, minus what the vendor has to pay $222.53, to come up with a final payable figure of $693,545.53.
So at settlement, the purchaser needs to fork out $693,545.53.
The vendor however does not get this full amount of $693,545.53. Why? Remember those outstanding rates in the s603 and s66 certificates? Those are amounts payable by the vendor which has not yet been paid. So it is the vendor’s responsibility to pay out these outstanding amounts, for the s603 certificate, council rates outstanding is $1020.90 and for the s66 certificate, water rates outstanding is $194.22.
So assuming the loan payout figure is $250,000, the vendor would get in his pocket $693,545.53 – $1020.90 – $194.22 – $250,000.00 of loan payout = $442,330.41.
If this is a paper settlement, after we have confirmed the calculation in the settlement adjustment sheet, we will issue what lawyers call a “cheque direction” to the purchaser’s solicitor. The “cheque direction” tells the purchaser’s solicitor how the vendor wants his monies. In this example, the vendor would email the purchaser’s solicitor the following “cheque direction”:
– Bank cheque payable to “Cumberland Council” for $1020.90
– Bank cheque payable to “Sydney Water” for $194.22
– Bank cheque payable to “Westpac Banking Corporation” for $250,000 (assuming vendor’s loan is with Westpac)
– Bank cheque payable to [Vendor’s name] for $442,330.41
On settlement day, the bank’s representative, the purchaser’s solicitor or his settlement agent, and us or our settlement agent, will arrive at the settlement venue at the time we all agreed.
The discharging bank, in this example Westpac, will hand over a “Discharge of Mortgage” form together with the “Certificate of Title” to the purchaser’s solicitor, in return for a bank cheque made payable to them by the purchaser’s solicitor for the discharge of the loan.
We will hand over the “Transfer” form (remember, this form was mailed to us by the purchaser’s solicitor for the vendor to sign) in return for the bank cheque payable to the [Vendor’s name]. We will also receive what is called an “Order on the Agent” if we have engaged a real estate agent to sell this property for us. (An “Order on the Agent” authorises the real estate agent to release the purchaser’s deposit monies which has been held in the real estate agent’s trust account to the vendor. (A sample “Order on the Agent” can be found here.)
As for the bank cheques for Cumberland Council and Sydney Water, we sight that the amount payable on these cheques are as per “cheque direction” and hand them to the purchaser’s solicitor.
By this time, with payment received, the vendor or the vendor(s) real estate agent (if one is engaged) can release the keys to the purchaser and the vendor can get the deposit monies from the real estate agent on production of the “Order on the Agent”.
If this is an electronic settlement, all these exchanges of monies and documents will happen electronically. There is no need for physical settlement.
This completes our conveyancing step by step guide
on the sale of a house in Sydney and NSW!
(Note 1: you may have realised that we have not included any screenshots or description on how to use PEXA. This is because PEXA currently is only available to lawyers and conveyancers. There is no point in showing how to use PEXA when you can’t even log in and see for yourself how it works.)
(Note 2: even though you may know how conveyancing process in Sydney/NSW works now, it is advisable that you refer to Revenue NSW advice on the risk of doing your own conveyancing. In short, Revenue NSW does not recommend that you do your own conveyancing because it comes with significant risks.)
If you find all these conveyancing steps a bit too labourious and cumbersome, you can engage us to do your conveyancing from start to finish – from preparing the full contract all the way to settlement where you receive the net proceeds of your sale in the comfort of your home. Please feel free to contact us!
Importantly, solicitors are covered by professional indemnity insurance. In the unlikely event that something does go wrong, you are protected.
We offer you peace of mind that your sale will be well taken care of.
For a standard house in Sydney or NSW, we charge a reasonably priced, fixed professional fee of about $850 + disbursements at costs.
Disbursements, as you now know, are mainly costs of ordering Vendor Disclosure Documents and s47 Land Tax Certificate.
For a standard sale of a Sydney / NSW house, disbursements are approx. $450, so the final fee is about $1,300 all-in!
(Please note: Online, you may see conveyancing quotes being advertised for less. Please ask for what’s included in their fees, and what extras are to be paid on settlement; it is not uncommon that some or all disbursements are not included, making the total cost payable by you much more than the initial quote!)
Our contact details:
Email: info@dsplaw.com.au
Mobile: 0466 278 034
Address for mail: PO Box 186, Auburn NSW 1835