{"id":11,"date":"2014-12-17T22:59:24","date_gmt":"2014-12-17T22:59:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.abkj.com.au\/resources\/?p=11"},"modified":"2024-05-23T12:33:00","modified_gmt":"2024-05-23T02:33:00","slug":"changes-to-residential-conveyancing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.abkj.com.au\/articles\/changes-to-residential-conveyancing\/","title":{"rendered":"Changes to Residential Conveyancing"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 1 December 2014, the Property Occupations Act 2014 (Qld) and the Land Sales and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2014 (Qld) commenced which enacted various changes to pre-existing and off-the-plan residential property purchases.<\/p>\n

The principal changes are:<\/p>\n

1. Real Estate Agent Commissions<\/h2>\n

Perhaps the most interesting change to the industry is the deregulation of agent commissions. Under the previous legislation, the maximum commission a real estate agent could charge with respect to a purchase or sale of residential property was calculated as a percentage of the sale price stated in the Contract (5% of the first $18,000.00 and 2.5% of the remainder). For example, for a $400,000.00 property the maximum commission chargeable was $10,450.00 plus GST.<\/p>\n

It was commonly accepted that the majority of agents charged the maximum rate as their standard fee. The removal of caps on commission is expected to increase the competition between agents, and allow consumers the opportunity to negotiate the commission payable (we note, however, that consumers always had the right to negotiate commissions with agents).<\/p>\n

It remains to be seen whether the deregulation of commissions has the outcome desired by the Government, or whether some commissions may actually increase.<\/p>\n

2. Warning Statement<\/h2>\n

From 1 December 2014, contracts entered into for sale of residential land will no longer have attached to the front of the document a \u2018Warning Statement\u2019 which contained information on Buyers cooling-off rights. There is now a paragraph which is required under the legislation to be inserted once immediately above where the Buyer executes the Contract.<\/p>\n

That paragraph is required to say, \u201cThis Contract may be subject to a 5 business day statutory cooling-off period. A termination penalty of 0.25% of the purchase price applies if the Buyer terminates the contract during the statutory cooling-off period. It is recommended the Buyer obtain an independent property valuation and independent legal advice about the contract and his or her cooling-off rights, before signing.\u201d The cooling-off right may now be waived or shortened by notice in writing from a Buyer to a Seller without any certification of advice having been given by a solicitor.<\/p>\n

We note that the legislation stipulates those contracts to which cooling-off rights will not apply (please note in particular the word \u201cmay\u201d in the first line of the prescribed cooling-off paragraph). Those contracts which will not be subject to a cooling-off period are:<\/p>\n