Abernethy Broatch McFetridge specialise in all aspects of residential property.
Including buying and selling houses and investment properties, sections, building contracts,easements, subdivisions and neighbour disputes.
Buying a house
Buying a house is a significant investment for anyone, whether a first home or investment property.
Your house is probably your largest investment so it’s critical when buying a property that you get it right. Come and see us or get the agent to provide us with a copy before you sign the sale and purchase agreement. Once the agreement has been signed there is little a lawyer can do to get you out of a bad agreement or protect you from unexpected problems with the property or the agreement.
What do we do?
Our job is to ensure you get what you paid for and that there are no problems with it. The basic steps are:
- Checking the agreement to ensure there are no conveyancing issues such as making sure that your sale and purchase dates tie up
- Checking the title for any defects
- Preparing the documents for the transfer of title
- Kiwisaver applications
- Liaising with your bank, preparing the finance documents and getting them signed
- Settling the purchase on the day
- Registering you as the owner of the property
- reporting to you
Selling a House
Selling property is a big decision. The laws may have changed significantly from when you purchased.
You need to be sure that the agreement is right for you and your situation. The agreement is complex so you need to be sure you understand what you are signing and that you are not going to have issues when settlement date arrives.
Our team of lawyers can make sure that the agreement works for you.
As with buying, once the agreement is signed there is not much that a lawyer can do to get you out of it. Before you sign any Agreement we suggest you contact us so that we can:
- Check the form and content of the Agreement to ensure that it correctly records your intentions and meets your requirements as to dates and payments. There are a number of clauses we can add to the agreement to protect you e.g.you may wish to add further conditions (e.g. an escape clause allowing you to cancel the Agreement should you receive a better offer.)
- Explain to you the effect of the conditions of the Agreement so you fully understand your rights and obligations under the Agreement eg. the standard agreement has a clause in it where the vendor warrants that any work done on the property has the necessary permit from the local Council and that a Code Compliance certificate has issued for this work.
We strongly urge you not to sign any Agreement until you have spoken to us first.
If you have dealt with a Real Estate firm, they will forward a copy of the signed Agreement directly to us after it is signed. We will contact you to address any necessary matters and are happy to clarify any queries you may have about the transaction.
We will then attend to the conveyancing steps required to complete the sale on your behalf. This includes searching the Record of Title to identify all interests registered against the property that need to be discharged (e.g. mortgages, caveats, and other charges) and sorting out any conditions that need to be satisfied.
We also prepare a statement of the amount the Purchaser is to pay to us on your behalf on settlement, which includes rates apportionments to the possession date.
What you need to do prior to possession date:
- Sign the Authority and Instruction Form for electronic conveyancing and the tax statement.
- Help us to organise the handover of keys
- Leave the property in the same condition as it was when the purchaser signed the Agreement.
