Everything you commit to happens at exchange. The useful work belongs before it.
We read the contract for sale before you are bound by it, tell you which searches and reports to obtain and what they mean, and carry the purchase through exchange, transfer duty and settlement.
Almost everything a purchaser commits to is fixed in the minutes around exchange. Once contracts are exchanged and the deposit paid, the price, the property and the completion date are settled. The useful work sits before that moment.
On a purchase we act for you, and for one side of the transaction only. Any referral fee or benefit paid or received in connection with how you came to us is disclosed to you in writing before we act, and you remain free to instruct any lawyer you choose.
Get the finance formally approved first
Pre-approval is not formal approval. It is conditional, and it does not survive a valuation that comes in under the contract price. A purchaser holding formal approval can exchange when the right property appears; one without it is asking a vendor for time nobody has promised.
The contract, and what is attached to it
Under section 63 of the Property and Stock Agents Act 2002 (NSW) a real estate agent must not offer residential property for sale unless a copy of the proposed contract, with the documents section 52A of the Conveyancing Act 1919 (NSW) requires to be attached before signature, is available for inspection at the agent’s registered office. The contract therefore exists from the first open home. Ask for it then, and send it to us.
We read the special conditions, which is where the vendor’s solicitor moves risk onto the purchaser, and we read what is attached: the title, the plan, the section 10.7 planning certificate, the sewer diagram, and every easement, covenant and restriction. What restricts the land often matters more than what stands on it.
Building, pest and strata reports
Order building and pest reports before exchange, not after: after exchange you own the result. On a strata lot the equivalent step is a records inspection. Section 182 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (NSW) gives that right to an owner, mortgagee or covenant chargee, or a person one of them authorises — not to a purchaser, which is why clause 23.16 of the standard strata contract has the vendor authorise the purchaser to make it. The minutes are the point: special levies, a thin capital works fund and defect correspondence surface there first.
Exchange, the deposit and cooling off
At exchange, two identical signed contracts are swapped and dated and the deposit is paid. The standard contract sets the deposit at 10% of the price unless the parties state otherwise; a deposit bond or bank guarantee can sometimes be negotiated instead, if the vendor agrees.
The cooling-off position is set out in the statement in the front of the contract, and it is not the same for every sale — a purchase at auction is treated differently again, and the position can be brought to an end early by a section 66W certificate given on your behalf. Rescinding within it is not free. Read that statement, and ask us before you rely on it.
Risk of damage does not pass at exchange — insure from exchange anyway. Under section 66K of the Conveyancing Act 1919 (NSW) risk does not pass until completion, or a stipulated time after the purchaser takes or becomes entitled to possession, whichever is first — and on the sale of a dwelling-house section 66O applies that despite any contrary clause. Insure anyway: a lender will ordinarily require cover from exchange, and a statutory remedy is slower than a claim.
Between exchange and settlement
- Return your mortgage documents promptly. A lender that is not ready is the most common cause of late completion.
- Transfer duty. Liability arises on the date of the contract, and under the Duties Act 1997 (NSW) duty must be paid within three months of that date, or on settlement if settlement comes first. An eligible off the plan purchase can defer payment by up to a further twelve months, subject to conditions.
- Complete identity verification for every purchaser, and arrange the balance of funds to be available on the settlement day, not the day after.
Final inspection, settlement and keys
Clause 12.3 of the standard contract allows the purchaser one inspection in the three days before a time appointed for completion. Use it for what is checkable: that contract inclusions are still there, that the property is vacant if vacant possession was agreed, and that nothing is damaged. Raise anything you find before settlement, because the leverage goes with it.
In New South Wales settlement is now electronic: funds move and the transfer is lodged in the same workspace, and once completion is confirmed the agent releases the keys.
Questions buyers ask us.
When should I get finance approved?
Before you start looking, not after you have found something. Pre-approval is conditional and does not survive a valuation below the contract price. Formal approval lets you exchange when the right property appears. At auction it matters more again, because a sale by public auction carries no cooling-off period — there is no window afterwards in which to sort the finance out.
Does the risk of damage pass to me at exchange?
Not under New South Wales law. Section 66K of the Conveyancing Act 1919 (NSW) postpones the passing of risk until completion, or a stipulated time after you take or become entitled to possession, whichever comes first — and on the sale of a dwelling-house section 66O applies that despite any contrary clause. Insure from exchange regardless: a lender will usually require it, and a claim is faster than a statutory remedy.
Should I get a building and pest report before or after exchange?
Before. After exchange you own the result, and the report tells you something you can no longer act on. On a strata lot, add a records inspection. Section 182 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (NSW) gives that right to an owner, mortgagee or covenant chargee, or a person they authorise; the standard strata contract supplies that authority to the purchaser.
The agent has asked for a section 66W certificate. What is it?
A certificate under section 66W of the Conveyancing Act 1919 (NSW), signed by a solicitor, barrister or licensed conveyancer who is not acting for the vendor, and given by the purchaser to the vendor at or before the contract is made. Its effect is to bring the purchaser's cooling-off position to an end. It should not be given until the contract has been read, the reports are back and the finance is formally approved.
When is transfer duty payable?
Liability arises on the date of the contract. Under the Duties Act 1997 (NSW) duty must be paid within three months of that date, or on settlement if settlement comes first. An eligible off the plan purchase can defer payment by up to a further twelve months, subject to conditions. Duty is paid by you to Revenue NSW and is not part of our fee.
Tell us what's happened.
Send us the contract before you sign or bid, and we’ll tell you whether we can act on the purchase, what reviewing it would involve and what that would cost.
Information on this site is general in nature and is not legal advice, and may have been overtaken by a change in the law. Contacting us does not create a solicitor–client relationship.