How The New Sellers Disclosure Will Impact The Sales Process

There are some significant changes coming to the way we sell property in Queensland. There is a new document – Sellers Disclosure – and it will be required to be provided from the seller to the buyer prior to signing a contract from August 1. New documents or changes to contracts are not new to the industry. The real estate transaction has facilitated a ‘check point’ for items like safety switches, pool certification and fire alarms for a number of years now. Every time there is a consideration of compliance and audit, it seems the sale or lease contract is the time to check, and it becomes the agent that administers it.

This has worked well and is quite an easy process to get right. But this new Sellers Disclosure is not an easy document to get right. It’s actually quite easy to get it wrong and the information from the legal fraternity is for agents to remove themselves from the process. The document requires a series of formal searches to be conducted and then provided to the buyer, for example, a title search, encumbrances, zoning, environmental notices etc. If the information provided is incomplete or inaccurate then the buyer can terminate the contract at any point up until settlement. It is this cost and research that means things change.

The estimated costs to have these documents drafted is $1000 to $2500, which is a huge addition to the current costs to an owner. My assessment is that, when previously an owner would choose their lawyer/conveyancer once they have sold, that they would choose them at the start. This allows them to manage all of the legal documents from drafting all the way through until settlement.