Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jun 13, 2010 12:34 pm Hi Guys, I booked a land in Aurora and was given the agreement copy I was just wondering if a solicitor is needed ? and also me being a first home buyer, really don't know what are the things I need to look for in the agreement please give ur expert advice Re: Land Agreement 2Jun 13, 2010 12:52 pm You don't really need a solicitor but I would recomment the services of a Conveyancer. Within the Section 32, pay close attention to any restrictions they place on the land and possible future buildings... The conveyancer can help you with this........ hope it helps Signed with Carlisle - Atlantique 36Mk2 altered & upsized Botanic Ridge Estate - Build started 22nd Oct 2010 Re: Land Agreement 3Jun 13, 2010 1:54 pm A conveyancer can't give you legal advice.... their role is simply to organise everything that's required for settlement and ensure that goes smoothly, not to interpret developer covenants and so on. So if you're wanting your contract checked, you should seek independent legal advice. Have a go at reading through the contract and all its attachments yourself first though. Sit down where you won't be interrupted with a writing pad and pen and go through it one paragraph at a time. If anything worries you, get it checked out. You normally only have a three day cooling-off period though, so you won't be able to waste any time if you do decide to get a solicitor to look over it. There's some info here that might be of use to you: Contracts: http://www.lawyersconveyancing.com.au/contract.asp How to read a Section 32: http://www.lawyersconveyancing.com.au/section.asp Cooling off: http://www.lawyersconveyancing.com.au/cooling.asp And some info on restrictive covenants from the state govt: http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/dse/nrenpl.nsf/linkview/2bf3571c1c8563dfca256d480003cf45bea6c84ae71808e0ca25730600829cdf The Sale of Land Act is available online (via Austlii) too, but I don't recommend you bother with that unless you have experience reading legislation. : http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/vic/consol_act/sola1962100/ Re: Land Agreement 4Jun 13, 2010 5:35 pm Like mod stated.......... However, you did not mention if you were looking for legal advice or advice about wanting to purchase the land, arrange contracts, assist in paperwork and titles etc etc........ And dependant on who and which Conveyancer services you seek, many are in positions to provide you with legal advice. Really depends on what you are wanting. In many instances the solicitor is a conveyancer.........and total fees are around $450 - $650 mark. This link will also help you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conveyancing Signed with Carlisle - Atlantique 36Mk2 altered & upsized Botanic Ridge Estate - Build started 22nd Oct 2010 Re: Land Agreement 5Jun 14, 2010 1:54 am Marclau And dependant on who and which Conveyancer services you seek, many are in positions to provide you with legal advice. Really depends on what you are wanting. In many instances the solicitor is a conveyancer.........and total fees are around $450 - $650 mark. Agree with Kek. A conveyancer's job is to provide the transfer of ownership from one person to another and anything required to accomplish this. They cannot provide legal advice about your contracts as they are not qualified. Its why they are 1/2 to a 1/3 of the price of having a solicitor complete conveyancing jobs for you. Very important to understand the difference as if you want legal advice on your land contract, you need to go through a solicitor, or conveyancing solicitor. If all you want is for somoene to complete the paperwork use a licensed conveyancer. From my experience with using both solicitors and conveyancers for buying / selling property, a licensed conveyancer cost $550 and a solicitor I paid $1300. Re: Land Agreement 6Jun 14, 2010 9:02 am I am not sure what true value add a solicitor will make in terms of "interpreting" a land contract. The basic tenant of any land sale is the same. A lawyer will only provide you with the contractual side. The variability will be in the "Memorandum of Common Provisions" and "Covenants". Neither of these are legal issues, more your fitness for purpose and regulations that must be followed for your building and land use. It may be that your home design now will be more expensive because you did not discover a specific covenant Eg. Roof tiles, pitch angles, ceiling heights for single story houses. Or a design you have in mind may not be suitable. Your best approach is as stated. Go through the document and highlight key points that concern you then approach some of the builders in the same estate / area to point out similar builds and what changes / adaptations need to be made. Re: Land Agreement 7Jun 14, 2010 5:02 pm I think it now depends what Jean needs. She never stated if it was to aide the legal understanding of the contract hence my replies. I have bought and sold many properties over the past 20 years (well over 15 properties) and only ever used a solicitor once only to find out I was overcharged and they provided me of no value. Unless the Section 32 stipulates restrictions, complicated requirements and covenants, you dont' need a solicitor. You just require common sense. And even if in doubt, you can speak to a conveyancer who should be able to highlight possible alarm bells. Sure, it won't be on any legal advice, but then again a solicitor will only point out the same if any issues and charge you 3 times for it. Just my opinions but I think Jean needs to supply us with more information before everyone points her to seek legal advice.. I am not saying it's wrong but it totally depends what her full requirements are. Signed with Carlisle - Atlantique 36Mk2 altered & upsized Botanic Ridge Estate - Build started 22nd Oct 2010 Re: Land Agreement 8Jun 21, 2010 11:40 am Hi guys , Thanks for all the advice.I have gone through the the land agreement contract given by aurora.It took me a while to complete. I don't think i need a conveyancer or solicitor to read through this.it is pretty much straight forward.then why we need a conveyancer or solicitor to read it and complete the agreement ? Do i really need any one of these guys to complete my land agreement or it is just a precautionary step? Please through some light on this Re: Land Agreement 9Jun 21, 2010 1:12 pm We had a solicitor go through ours. He pointed out that one section mentioned section blah of some law somewhere, and explained it meant we had to build a water tank. He also pointed out other things like the risk we were taking on by buying land without a soil test. But the real value was at settlement - the bank screwed up by not authorizing their settlement agent to actually complete the settlement, and the agent screwed up by not informing us of this until the day before settlement! The solicitor got the bank to send their own people in to settle, and as a result we got the $3,000 early settlement bonus, which was at risk if we didn't settle on that day. So he didn't just look through the contract, he also made sure that settlement happened on time. 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