Entering into an agreement for sale and purchase is a contractually binding legal document so it’s important you get it right before you sign. The agreement for sale and purchase itself warns of the importance of seeking legal advice prior to entering into the agreement.
Implications for both sellers and purchasers can be far reaching if legal advice has not been received prior to signing. Considerations for each party either side of the agreement should be given and legal advice obtained.
When purchasing:
Often purchasers consider they are protected and therefore do not need legal advice prior to signing if the agreement contains a solicitors / legal professional’s approval condition limited only to approval of the agreement and title. This is often not the case. Requesting any variations to the agreement and having these requests approved by the vendor following signing is not guaranteed and is always at the vendors and their legal professional’s discretion. A condition of this nature should never be relied upon for any changes needed to be agreed following signing to be approved.
The nature of conditions required can be dependent on the type of property. The timeframes for meeting conditions needs to be carefully considered taking into account Kiwisaver withdrawal processes and council timeframes for producing a LIM report.
The settlement date is something that is also overlooked especially if you are selling a property also or need to provide your landlord notice you are vacating once all your conditions are satisfied.
When selling:
Real estate agents do a great job by going through a vendors obligations under an agreement for sale and purchase as they relate to the chattels needing to be in good working order, keys to all external doors to be present, covering off any potential unconsented work having been carried out to the dwelling or other structures on the land and any notices of issues you as a seller may be aware of or had notice regarding. However, it is still best practice even when you are selling to have legal advice prior to signing and why wouldn’t you when this is a free service?
Why is this free?
One of our core values is remove any stress we can and to make your property sale or purchase go as smoothly as possible. A significant component of this is to help you get an agreement for sale and purchase correct before you sign.
Our point of difference is to remove any concerns about being charged for advice to get the agreement for sale and purchase right before signing. This also makes things a lot less stressful for our clients.
What's the process for obtaining free advice?
- Following receipt of an unsigned agreement for sale and purchase usually via email from your real estate agent, we would either email or call you to discuss your specific requirements with respect of all areas of the transaction. At this initial discussion, we will go through the agreement with you and suggest variations if required.
We appreciate that this is usually time sensitive so we ensure we do this quickly for you. - If you are purchasing, we make contact with your financial advisor if requested to assess time required for finance.
- If you are selling we give careful consideration to the selling component of your purchase agreement including the settlement dates for both.
- We then communicate with your real estate agent with the changes required to the agreement for sale and purchase.
Once these processes have taken place you can sign the agreement for sale and purchase with complete reassurances you have sought legal advice specifically tailored to you, the property and your circumstances prior to entering into a contractually binding document.
We know at times that despite your best attempts an agreement for sale and purchase may not be accepted by the other party and the process needs to be started again. You can do this with us an unlimited number of times and never have the fear of being charged to get legal advice before you sign.
However, our free advice does not extend to purchasers entering into an auction agreement for sale and purchase – this method of sale is an entirely different beast altogether. Please check out our blog we have written regarding purchasing at auction and if you would like more information, please get in touch.