Conveyancing for property in Penrith, acted on from one office at Bella Vista.
We act on purchases and sales across the Penrith City Council area — new release estates, house-and-land arrangements and the older established streets. In New South Wales the work is the contract, not the postcode.
Greenline Legal has one office, at Bella Vista, and we act on Penrith property from it. There is no Penrith office and no Penrith staff. Conveyancing in New South Wales is now conducted electronically as a matter of course: searches and certificates are ordered online, and exchange and settlement happen in an electronic lodgment network workspace shared by both solicitors and both banks. What decides a Penrith purchase is whether somebody reads the contract properly.
New estates, and the two contracts behind a house-and-land purchase
Jordan Springs, Caddens, Glenmore Park and the newer release pockets across the Penrith City Council area are often sold in a way an ordinary transfer of an existing house is not. A house-and-land arrangement is usually two separate contracts: a contract for the land, which on an unregistered lot completes only after the plan of subdivision is registered, and a building contract with the builder, governed by the Home Building Act 1989 (NSW) rather than by the contract for sale. The two are only read against each other if somebody reads them against each other.
Registration is the variable. A land contract commonly completes a set number of days after registration of the plan, and the registration date is not within the vendor’s gift or yours. That timing drives the sunset date, the expiry of your finance approval and, on an off-the-plan contract, the disclosure and rescission provisions the Conveyancing Act 1919 (NSW) applies to those sales.
A building contract is not a conveyance. Residential building work in New South Wales carries statutory warranties implied by the Home Building Act 1989 (NSW), and the Act also regulates licensing, deposits, progress payments and the insurance a builder must hold before taking payment for work above the contract value the Act prescribes . Those questions sit outside a contract for sale. We also act for builders, contractors and developers in building and construction disputes, so we ask early who the builder on your lot is: we run a conflict check before taking the matter on, and we will tell you if we cannot act.
The floodplain, and what the planning certificate says
Parts of the Penrith local government area sit on the Hawkesbury–Nepean floodplain, and flood-related development controls apply to land in some of them. Whether they apply to a particular lot is disclosed on the planning certificate the council issues — one of the documents that must be attached to the contract before residential property is offered for sale.
The certificate is not decoration. Flood related development controls appear among the prescribed matters a council must certify, while fuller detail about flood behaviour on the land may only appear in additional information a council can supply on request, which a vendor is not obliged to obtain. That matters, because the same facts feed into what you can build later, what an insurer will write and what a lender will accept. If flood is on the certificate, order the additional information and read it before exchange, not after.
The established stock
Penrith, Kingswood, St Marys, Emu Plains and the older established streets raise a different set of questions:
- Additions, enclosed carports and secondary dwellings built without approval, and whether the council’s records support what is standing there.
- A shed, a pool or a slab sitting over an easement, or a sewer main crossing the yard on the diagram.
- Covenants imposed on subdivision decades ago that still restrict what can be built.
None of it is exotic. It is cheaper to find before exchange than after.
Where to start
This page is general information about property transactions in the Penrith area. It is not legal advice, it does not take account of your circumstances, and reading it does not make us your lawyers.
Penrith questions.
You are not in Penrith. Does that matter?
No, and we would rather say so plainly than pretend otherwise. We have one office, at Bella Vista, and no presence in Penrith at all. Searches and certificates are ordered online, the contract moves by email, and exchange and settlement happen in an electronic lodgment network workspace shared with the other side and both banks. You are welcome to meet us at Bella Vista, but nothing in a Penrith conveyance requires it.
We are buying house and land in a new estate. Is that one contract or two?
Usually two. A contract for the land, which where the lot is in an unregistered plan completes after that plan is registered, and a separate building contract with the builder, governed by the Home Building Act 1989 (NSW). They have different completion triggers, different warranties and different consequences if something slips. Send us both, and tell us which builder, so we can run a conflict check.
The planning certificate mentions flood. What should we do with that?
Read it, then get the rest of it. Flood related development controls appear among the matters a council must certify on the planning certificate, but fuller detail may only come in additional information a council can supply on request, which the vendor need not obtain. It bears on future building work, insurance and finance — all before exchange.
Our land contract has a sunset date. What does that mean?
It is the date by which the plan of subdivision must be registered, after which a party may be able to bring the contract to an end. Registration timing is not controlled by you or the vendor. The Conveyancing Act 1919 (NSW) restricts a vendor rescinding under a sunset clause in off-the-plan sales, and your finance approval and duty position both need checking against that date.
Tell us what's happened.
Send us the contract — land contract, building contract, or both — before you sign or bid, and we will tell you whether we can act, 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.