Hi all

We are about to put in an offer on a property over in Perth, we are new to Perth.

We were looking for ages for a place and we think we found what we are looking for.
We asked to put an offer on the house and the estate agent tells us the following:

The property has a shared bore that is why there is an easment. It runs along the boundary and it is for the pipes for the bore and it is registered on the title which is the best way to go that way it transfers to new owner. There is also a restrictive covenant on the title which again is on about 75% of all properties in ------- -----. I will forward to you copies of everything. Have a read of it. There is nothing worrying on the documents, they are long winded legal documents that are registered against the title.

On the contract it also say easement burden???? not to sure what that means either!!

I understand what a bore is and how I share it with my neighbor but the rest doesn't make since to me. Friends have told us to find a settlement agent and they can make sense of it all.

Can anyone give us a brief heads up and what exactly the above actually means.

Do you think we should walk away from this property and keep looking.. is this the norm?
Many thanks

Lots of properties have some sort of easements (approx 50%, see this post on my blog http://www.anewhouse.com.au/?p=409 ) Basically the burdens are:
If you have someone else's pipe across your land you have to make sure you don't damage it.
If you have a pipe across someone else's land you have a duty to pay for any maintenance or repair on that pipe.

Probably best to get your solicitor to review the situation before you commit.

touch, easements are very common and usually won't affect you in any way. It usually has something to do with water corp (ie. sewerage pipework running down the back length of the yard is very common in older properties). An easement has to be listed on the Certificate of Title and a buyer must be made aware of it. It basically means that you can't build over it in any way, and if there was a blockage or problem with it, then Water Corp (or whoever) has the right to enter your property to fix it (unless there was an emergency repair, you would be given prior notice!).

My hubby and I own our own RE agency in Perth, so please feel free to send me a private message if you'd like some advice, or someone to look at the easement to see if it is 'unusual'. No hard sell on you, I promise! Just friendly advice from a neutral party

offshore, it is not common to have solicitors involved in real estate transactions in WA. In fact, in our experience, majority of the deals that we have dealt with in the past that have had solicitors involved, are the ones that get hairy. Settlement Agents/Conveyancers are the way to go over here (they usually charge less and give better service to all involved!).

Touch, just adding to my reply

Restrictive Covenants usually have an expiry date, so the one on that property may have already expired (check the document).
They can cover all sorts of things like: what colour facade or roof you must have, no signage out the front, no vehicles larger than xxx to be parked out the front, no chopping down of trees taller than xxm, no clearing of natural bushland, etc etc. The documents will tell you what they are, and who has lodged them. Very common in newer estates where there are stricter building guidelines as far as colours & materials used, and some older properties have them but are a waste of the $24 it costs us to purchase them (mandatory!) because they've usually expired but haven't been taken off the Title!