I am looking at buying an apartment in Canberra, I have been advised I need to use a conveyancer based in ACT. Can anyone provide a recommendation and give an indication of likely costs. Thanks.
Recommendations for Property Conveyancing in ACT
teardrops21 on 11/01/2017 - 13:49
Comments
I went with Jane Lally from http://www.oconnorharris.com.au/ourteam.html
I don't remember the costs, she was fine. But then we were buying off-plan, so it was simple.
I used O'Connor Harris(http://www.oconnorharris.com.au/) for selling my house. The lady was Ruth Harris and she was quite professional. Very happy with their service. The cost was approx 1K and it might be different for buying a house.
We used Tim Reilley from Netlegal twice and were very happy with him. He was willing to review the contract before we went to auctions. Turn around time was 1-2 days. He noticed unusual things out of a 500-page contract (contract + strata reports)…
His fee is around $1500 at the moment, which has increased quite significantly from the first time we used his service. Still recommend him though.
Wow they got 50%+ pay rise in five years, five years ago it was around $600.
I used to use RSK legal, now Velocity Conveyancing. They wasn't that great at that time.
Whats stopping you from DIY? There are several kits available, much like doing your own will.
This can be a good suggestion for some people. However I personally do not have the time nor inclination to do this. Even though this should be straight forward, I would prefer an expert to look at this and advise. Lastly I have been told (rightly or wrongly) property transfers in ACT need to be handled by a local ACT lawyer.
Both of which are fraught with danger.
I'm a lawyer and I wouldn't DIY my property purchase.
Clint Jones from Priority Legal (Watson). Very knowledgable, reasonable fees & overall top bloke.
A huge +1 for Clinton from Priority Legal. I used him for our property sale via Renae's recommendation and he was excellent throughout the process, including navigating through a few tricky issues.
Licenced conveyancers don't exist in the ACT, so you have to use a lawyer/law firm.
You will very likely need to use an ACT-based solicitor as very few people outside of the ACT do ACT conveyancing work (although the process is very similar to NSW).
I think costs generally vary from $1k-$2k, plus disbursements (costs for searches, etc). IMO you get what you pay for, but YMMV.