If you want to buy a home, land or investment property, lease, buy or sell a business then you’ll have to sign a contract of sale. The legal work involved in preparing the contract of sale, mortgage, lease and other related documents is known as conveyancing. Conveyancing is the transferring of property ownership from one person to another.

A Conveyancer specialises in property law transactions and can assist you in the buying and selling of properties within New South Wales. Buying and selling a property will be one of the biggest transactions in your life and you need someone to handle every detail of your property transaction and ensure a smooth stress free process.

At Louise Neilson Conveyancing, your matter will be handled by a knowledgeable and experienced Conveyancer with over 13 years of conveyancing experience.

When you buy a residential property in NSW, you have a five business-day cooling-off period after you exchange contracts. The cooling-off period starts as soon as you exchange and ends at 5pm on the fifth business day after exchange. During this period, you may get out of the contract as long as you give written notice.

A cooling-off period does not apply if you buy a property at auction or exchange contracts on the same day as the auction after it is passed in or for a rural property.

You can waive the cooling-off period by giving the vendor a ‘66W certificate’. It is also possible to reduce or extend the cooling-off period by written agreement with the vendor.

If you use your cooling-off rights and withdraw from the contract during the five business-day period, you will have to pay the vendor 0.25 percent of the purchase price. This works out to be $250 for every $100,000 (Source: faritrading.nsw.gov.au).

The buyer and the seller are not legally bound until signed copies of the contract have been exchanged. The vendor and purchaser each sign one copy of the contract. These copies are then exchanged (checked to ensure they are identical and then dated) usually by the parties’ conveyancer.

Exchanging contracts legally completes the process of buying a home. Up to this point, the agreement is usually not binding and both the purchaser or the vendor have the right to change their minds.

Exchange normally occurs once we have made proper inquiries (including pre-purchase pest and building reports) regarding the property and ensure necessary financial arrangement have been made.

At the time of the exchange you will be required to pay a deposit.

Settlement usually takes place around 5 weeks after contracts are exchanged. This is when you pay the rest of the sale price (plus adjustments for rates and water) and become the legal owner of the property. You also get the keys today!

On the morning of settlement day, or the day before, you should conduct a final inspection of the property to ensure it is in the same condition as when contracts were exchanged. The last thing you want is to pick up the keys to the property and find that the house has fallen apart. The property should be in the same condition as at exchange, subject to fair wear and tear.

PEXA (Property Exchange Australia) is Australia's online property exchange network. It assists members – such as lawyers, conveyancers and financial institutions – to lodge documents with Land Registry Services and complete financial settlements electronically.

Neilson & Co Legal has embraced electronic conveyancing by becoming a member of PEXA and regularly carries out online PEXA settlements.