The conveyancing process for vendors

If you're using a real estate agent to assist you with the sale of your property, this is usually the first step you'll take when you decide to sell. The choice of agent is completely up to you, but when you do choose an agent and decide to proceed, you should advise the agent that I will be acting for you and provide them with my contact details. Your agent will then contact me to request that a Section 32 Vendor Statement be prepared.

A "section 32" or "vendor statement" is a document which includes information about the property that a prospective purchaser needs to know, such as title details, what services are connected, what outgoings are payable, etc. I will prepare this statement based on information you have provided to me, which may include copies of your rates and water notices, building permits, and other documents relating to your property. It could also include details of any material facts you are required to disclose to prospective purchasers.

The real estate agent will generally not list the property or show it to prospective purchasers until they have a signed Section 32 Vendor Statement in their possession.

It is extremely important to remember that a signed contract containing a defective Section 32 Vendor Statement (that is, one which fails to provide required information, or provides incorrect information) can be avoided by the purchaser at any time up until the moment of settlement, without any penalty to the purchaser. This means that the purchaser could potentially refuse to settle in the hour before settlement, and you would be required to refund their full deposit to them.

When someone makes an offer on your property, the real estate agent will communicate that offer to you and ask whether you agree to sell at that price on those terms. Offers from purchasers will often include conditions that the contract be subject to finance, building or pest inspections, or sometimes the sale of the purchaser's current property. It is up to you whether you agree to these terms, and you will need to weigh up whether you might lose the sale if you don't, and if it is likely that another purchaser will be found quickly.

The real estate agent normally arranges signing by all parties. However, given that (a) agents are not lawyers and (b) the purchaser's solicitor sometimes adds special conditions or amends the contract, I recommend you have the contract reviewed by me before you sign it. If you don't have it reviewed, at least check that the price is correct, you will be able to meet the settlement date, and that you agree with the special conditions before signing.

Once the contract has been signed, it can be tempting to think that your property has been "sold" and it will now proceed to settlement. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. While there are a number of reasons a contract may not proceed to settlement, the most common ones are:

• The purchaser withdraws from the contract under the cooling-off provisions
  After signing a contract, a purchaser has three clear business days in which they can withdraw from the contract for any reason. This means that if they sign on Monday, they have until the end of Thursday to withdraw (assuming no public holidays in between). If they withdraw during this time, and have already paid a deposit, their deposit must be refunded to them, less 0.2% of the purchase price (or $100, whichever is greater - there are precious few properties available these days where $100 would be the greater amount!)

• The purchaser's finance doesn't get approved
  If a purchaser signs a contract subject to finance, they will typically have until a particular date, or a number of days after signing, to have their finance application approved. You may need to allow access to the property during this time for the purchaser's lender to value the property. If their finance is not approved by the due date, most purchasers will ask for an extension. If you do not grant the extension (and it is in your sole discretion whether or not to do so), most purchasers will withdraw from the contract. If they withdraw under a finance clause, their full deposit must be refunded to them.

• The contract is subject to a purchaser having a building, pest or other inspection undertaken
  Purchasers often like to have building or pest inspections undertaken on a property they wish to purchase, before they get locked into an unconditional contract. Other less common inspections may be plumbing, electrical, asbestos, etc. depending on the age and type of property. You will need to allow the purchaser's inspector to access the property. The outcome from an inspection clause is similar to a finance clause - if the purchaser withdraws, the deposit must be refunded in full.

After the contract becomes unconditional, various other things may happen:

• You may be able to request that your deposit be released early. This is not guaranteed, as there may be reasons that your deposit cannot be released, or the settlement timeframe may be so short that it is not practical to seek early release of the deposit. If you think you will need to access your deposit prior to settlement, it is best to raise this with me as soon as possible.

• You will need to complete a verification of identity procedure, by providing original identification documents and proving your identity.

• Various documents will need to be signed, including a client authorisation (to enable settlement to be processed) and a transferor statement (to assist in the calculation of the purchaser's stamp duty).

In the week prior to settlement, the purchaser is also entitled to conduct a final inspection of the property. You are required to hand over the property in the condition it was in at the date the purchaser signed the contract, so as much as possible you should ensure that it is in this condition when the final inspection is undertaken. For example, if you have damaged part of the property while moving furniture, aim to have the damage repaired prior to the final inspection. If you have agreed with the purchaser to fix anything else prior to settlement (for example, to repair a fence, replace a door lock, etc.) this should also be done prior to the final inspection if at all possible.

Almost all property transactions in Victoria are now carried out electronically, most commonly on a platform called PEXA (although there are others). To put it simply, PEXA is basically a website that all parties to a settlement (lawyers and banks) can log in to, to arrange all of the transactional requirements for settlement. Documents are created and signed electronically, and funds are moved between various accounts to effect settlement.

Settlement is set for a particular time of day in PEXA, but for various reasons any matter may "roll over" to a later settlement time if it is not ready to settle at the scheduled time. I will advise you in the days prior to settlement what time the settlement is scheduled to occur, but I cannot guarantee that it will occur at that particular time. You will need to be out of the property being sold by the earliest time I have advised you that settlement will take place. However, if you are purchasing a new property at the same time, I cannot guarantee that your new property will be ready to move into when your old property has to be vacated. If you are looking at a sale-and-purchase scenario, please contact me to discuss further.

After settlement has occurred, I will call you to confirm that settlement has been completed and your property has been sold. Settlement often takes 30 minutes or more to be completed, so please do not panic if you don't hear from me straight away.

If you owed money to a lender, generally they will take all funds at settlement. The amount required to discharge your loan will be applied, and any balance remaining is usually deposited into your nominated account with that lender.

If you don't have a lender, your sale proceeds will come to my trust account, where I will retain my costs and pay the balance to you, or as you have directed.