FAQs for sellers about the sale conveyancing process

1. What is conveyancing?
Selling a property can be very rewarding but there are some very technical but important legal and financial formalities to go through before settlement. This process is known as conveyancing and lawlab are here to help you.

2. Who are lawlab?
We are Australia’s most popular national conveyancing law firm. We have helped thousands of satisfied sellers secure and settle the sale of their property hassle free. We are lawyers – not just conveyancers – so we can give you proper legal advice.

3. How much does conveyancing cost?
If you compare quotes from conveyancing providers make sure there aren’t hidden differences in the scope of the service offered to you or in the way the quoted price is calculated. Our fees are generally mid-range.

Be careful of really cheap or the all-inclusive package offered by some conveyancers as you may find that they don’t provide the complete service or they don’t do the necessary searches (and therefore don’t pass on to you the search cost). Not doing and charging for searches may make their service look cheaper but it’s a different and more risky service that puts you at risk of losing a sale and serious fines (see item 4 below).

In most states you’ll need to pay for a contract and property disclosures required by law to sell your property. Your lawlab legal advisor will give you an estimate of these costs before you proceed. In some states the agents are allowed to fill in a prescribed contract.

If you accept an offer and sign a contract, then you need to pay for the sale conveyancing fees which can be collected from your sale proceeds at settlement.

Our sale conveyancing fees are fixed for a standard sale conveyancing service. If for some reason your sale does not go as expected and additional legal work is required, the most common additional services are also fixed and listed in our costs agreement so you know what to expect rather than having to pay an hourly rate. On average less than 10% of all sales require additional legal services.

4. Do all conveyancing practices take legal risk for the contract?
No but we do! Our research shows that all ‘cheap conveyancers’ give you a contract that leaves some or all liability for the contract and disclosure with you! Why pay at all if they won’t take on responsibility for what is in the contract?? Don’t take this risk for the sake of a small saving!

We will ask you questions about the property and order property searches to cover things you probably won’t know but are legally obliged to disclose to potential buyers.
If the information in the contract and disclosures is false or inaccurate then you can lose the sale and in some circumstances you could be fined thousands of dollars.

We recently reviewed a sample of random contract and property disclosure documents prepared by other popular conveyancing practices in a particular jurisdiction. From this sample:

• None of the disclosures contained all the recommended property searches;
• Nearly 20% were defective and would have allowed the buyer to withdraw and possibly sue the seller;
• Nearly 20% included a release clause so that the conveyancer was not responsible for it being defective and all risk and liability was on the seller;
• All were at risk of being defective if there were any proposals for the land unknown to the seller.

The old adage of ‘you get what you pay for’ applies to conveyancing. Who will you trust to do your conveyancing when you buy or sell your home? Choose lawlab to protect your greatest asset.

5. How do I sign the contract?
We make this part as easy as possible for you by using secure electronic signing software. Don’t worry about having to travel to do this, you can sign a contract from the comfort of your home computer or using your smartphone, and have a contract exchanged within minutes. Electronically signed contracts are legal and are thanks to us are now commonly accepted in the property industry.

6. How does lawlab keep me updated on the conveyancing process?
You’ll get access to our industry leading platform called Rundl that connects you to us and your real estate agent. We’ll keep you updated with instant notifications, share documents with you and guide you through the conveyancing process using integrated digital tools and videos. And your lawlab legal advisor is only a phone call away if you need to speak to someone.

7. Are you set up for electronic settlements?
Yes, we are the most experienced national user of the electronic settlements platform. Settling electronically reduces the risk of settlement delays and you’ll receive your sale proceeds days before a traditional settlement!

8. Why do I need to verify my identity?
Property fraud has increased dramatically recently and governments have strict laws requiring you to verify your identity. You’ll need to do a face to face verification of identity but we make this easy for you by offering Rundl ID enabling you to do this from the comfort of your home at any time using your smartphone.

9. I’m buying another property, can lawlab handle that?
Yes we can! If you use lawlab for your purchase you can save time and costs as we’ll already have your details and verified your identity. We can help co-ordinate your sale and purchase seamlessly.

10. What do lawlab’s clients say about our service?
Don’t just take our word for it, check out our real and verified facebook reviews at https://www.facebook.com/lawlab/reviews. We have one of the highest ratings in the industry and are proud to have helped so many satisfied clients in what can be a stressful and confusing time.

Richie Muir

Legal Director

Richie is an experienced and commercially astute lawyer specialising in property law. He leads lawlab’s team of legal advisors and is the go-to problem solver for complex or unusual matters.  Having spent many years living and studying in Europe he now calls Brisbane home. Outside of work he juggles his time helping bring up his 2 young daughters, playing football and developing property.