Has anyone had an experience with a contract lawyer where they were able to uncover something out of the ordinary?
I'm looking at a property and I've looked through the contract and it seems pretty standard. Wondering if it's worth forking out a few hundred for a lawyer to look through the master contract and Form 1.
Do you mean getting a lawyer/conveyancer to review a contract prior to an auction or making a binging offer?
Or are you talking about doing your own conveyancing?
Actually, it doesn't really matter. I would say you need to get advice before you enter into a binding multi-hundred thousand commitment in either case.
Ah, it's just for them to look over the sale contract, and see if there's any abnormalities. Because it's part of a strata title, my main concern is I might accidentally do something "not allowed" by the property management.
But that's true. $1000-2000 is probably worth spending on a purchase that big.
Go for lawyer/conveyancer. They take care of all paper work and the stress.
Mine saved me 10k, read over every contract we looked at, and then did all the paperwork stuff for 1400. Well worth it IMO.
Howd they save you $10k? In terms of time or did they pick up something strange?
They found a rates issue. Can't quite remember the specifics, but after a brief chat with the agent and owner the contract was amended.
having done my own conveyancing… it's probably worth $1000!
Definitely advisable.
Worth it just for peace of mind.
Ask a uni student to do it. Preferably from a good university and in their final year or in their PHD. :p
That's what I do.
This is probably a breach of the Act and leaves you without the benefit of insurance if the advice is bad…
But its up to you.
Indeed it is. Asking a student to do this you might get him or her barred for life from the profession if found out that legal advice has been given or legal work has been done without being properly qualified.
And BigTed is right - no insurance or come back to if something has been missed.
Just because you can read the words in the contract doesn't mean you necessarily understand all of the implications and responsibilities that come from them.
Likewise, you won't know what should be or is usually in a contract, but isn't in this case.
Your solicitor is not going to advise you too much in regards to what you can and can't do under the strata management - this is why you would inspect the strata records and read the house rules/default articles/whatever.
I'd definitely go a lawyer over a conveyancer. I actually found them to be cheaper and definitely helped with a contract I had, which ended up being quite complex. Well worth the money.
You are asking about the biggest investment in your life time, of course! Pay someone to go through your contract. In the scheme of things, what is $1k-2k compared to the price your property? You can be thrifty about certain aspects of life but not this mate. Highly recommend you to engage a lawyer.
I've always been confused when purchasing a property or land etc - settlement agent : no law background to go through all these details?
It's a "conveyancer" you want that has the legal expertise to not only complete the settlement and all paperwork, but actively reviews and tries to find faults in the contractual documentation??? Or is there also a difference to a contract lawyers.
Sorry, I know it sounds like a silly question but just wanted to straighten out what profession did what for what i need…. I went through my first land purchase with just a settlement agent but assume my next purchase of a house one should get a proper lawyer to word up the contract to be subject to finance and relevant favourable conditions in the right 'legal words' - i.e. inspection reports etc. So you can weasel your way out if you find nasties. Just wasn't sure where to start looking for lawyers.
Perth based. got a recommendation for a MDH legal prev…?
Start with the WA law association, they might be able to help you find a lawyer:
Most definitely, property contracts can contain all sorts of hidden traps which could affect the use / value of the land including things like easements and restrictive covenants.
Really depends.
Chances are that 99% of the time everything will go fine.
The question is, if you fall into the remaining 1% do you want to have either:
1. a lawyer who picked up the issue, or
2. someone to sue for the loss and damage if they didn't pick it up?
If you are ok with taking your chances, fine. But the bigger the potential loss the more likely a lawyer will be worth the money.