Is it really necessary to use the services of a conveyancer when buying a house, or is it something you can do on your own?
In Queensland, a buyer or seller is legally allowed to perform their own conveyancing for properties that they own or are buying themselves. There are quite a few downsides to this however, that usually make performing conveyancing on your own an unwise move. Let’s find out more.
What you’ll prevent when you use a conveyancer
Using the services of a licensed conveyancer will prevent the following problems and issues with your property transaction.
Financial problems
A common reason for not using a conveyancer is to save money by not having to pay legal fees – but you could potentially end up spending more by trying to undertake a conveyance yourself.
There are many ways that a property transaction can go wrong, and most of them will leave you in a financial hole. If you don’t carry out the conveyance correctly, you not only risk losing the property but also being significantly out of pocket.
Without an in-depth understanding of the complexities of property law, you can very easily find yourself in the sort of trouble that will cost you much more than a conveyancer’s fee.
Legal problems
As well, you can quickly run into serious legal problems if you fail to get the conveyance right. The conveyancing process is subject to many different pieces of legislation, case law, contract conditions and practice guidelines that you need to be familiar with – an almost impossible task unless you’re an expert. There are serious legal consequences if you get the process wrong, many of which can be devastating.
Wasted and poor use of time
It sounds simple, but conveyancing usually ends up being far more time-consuming than you expect. Conveyancing involves:
- Interacting with all the parties involved in the sale, such as the buyer or seller, the real estate agent, government agencies, building inspectors, banks or lending institutions etc.
- Reading, understanding and finalising all the legal, governmental and financial documentation and contracts
- Preparing all documentation and ensuring that it is legally correct
- Conducting title searches of properties and uncovering any preconditions
- Ensuring the buyer or seller meets all their legal and contractual obligations
- Facilitating and coordinating settlement
All of these tasks add up quickly and can be extremely time-consuming to complete. As well, you only have a limited amount of time to complete them. However, if you don’t know what
you’re doing when undertaking a conveyance, these tasks will take you significantly longer than they would take a licensed conveyancer. An experienced professional will be able to dispense with such tasks in short order, as they perform them daily.
Whereas you – the inexperienced novice – will waste an inordinate amount of time trying to even figure out what you need to do, let alone do it. No doubt you want your property transaction to be finalised as quickly as possible, but trying to get through a conveyance without expert help will significantly slow down the process
Stress
Plus, it’s likely to cause a great deal of stress as well. Image trying to walk into a courtroom and take over the job of a barrister without ever having done it before.
Chances are you won’t do it well, and if there’s a lot riding on the outcome, it’s going to be very stressful trying. Conveyancing works in the same way, in that inexperienced people are going to find the whole process stressful to navigate.
It’s a complicated and complex process, and you will be held liable if you make a mistake. There’s a lot of stress associated with potentially making a huge error and costing yourself a lot of money, time or even causing serious legal issues if you get it wrong.
A preventable loss of sale
You’d probably be astounded to discover just how many ways a property sale can go wrong, especially if you don’t know what you are doing.
Conveyancers are trained to nip these problems in the bud before they become bigger and more unmanageable problems, and before your sale falls through completely.
What you’ll gain
Here are the benefits you’ll gain when you use the services of a licensed conveyancer.
Your time
Your time is precious. If you’re like most of us, you’re probably overworked and too busy without enough free time for yourself. And do you really want to waste the precious little free time you have on wrestling with the correct way to carry out a conveyance?
Particularly when buying or selling a house, you’ve got enough on your hands. The majority of people quickly discover that they actually don’t have the amount of spare time necessary to carry out a conveyance correctly.
Using the services of a conveyancer means you are able to use your time much more wisely, on other tasks that are important to the purchase or sale of your home, or on some much-needed downtime.
Using a licensed conveyancer will ensure that your days doesn’t evaporate into a conveyancing vacuum and gives you back that precious commodity that most of us have in limited supply – time.
A conveyancer will allow you to most efficiently use your time when buying or selling a house. And in today’s rush rush world where everyone seems to be on fast forward, that’s really worth something.
A good sale
Whether you’re buying or selling a house, a conveyancer knows how to make the process run smoothly, how to avoid any potential minefields and how to ensure you get the best outcome from your property sale or purchase.
Insurance and asset protection
One of the biggest benefits a licensed conveyancer can bring to the table is insurance. All licensed conveyancers carry professional indemnity and fidelity insurance to cover their clients in the event of something going wrong or a mistake being made.
Without this insurance, you would just have to weather the consequences if things went wrong.
Peace of mind
What all this adds up to is peace of mind. When you place your property transaction in the hands of a licensed conveyancer, you can breathe easily and relax.
Financial problems, legal problems, stress, wasted time and lost assets won’t be things you’ll need to worry about anymore. Instead of having the threat of making a huge and costly mistake hanging over your head, you’ll have great peace of mind that your property transaction will be completely easily, correctly and on time.
If you want a conveyancer who can bring all these benefits and more, contact GM Law here
