What the required documents are
The ACT’s list is the proposed contract, leaving out the excluded particulars, together with the documents section 9 names. In plain words, for a house, the items include:
- (a)The Crown lease
A copy of it.
- (b)A title extract
A current certified extract from the land titles register showing every interest affecting the property.
- (c)The deposited plan
A copy of it.
- (d) and (e)Encumbrances
A copy of each one shown in the register, such as a restrictive covenant or an easement, and a statement about any that is not.
- (f)Lease conveyancing inquiry documents
A copy of them for the property.
- (h)(i)Building conveyancing inquiry documents
For each residence covered by the contract.
- (h)(ii)The energy efficiency rating statement
For each residence, where section 23 requires one.
- (h)(iii)A building and compliance inspection report
From an inspection no earlier than 3 months before the home was first advertised, offered or listed; if the seller got two or more reports in the 6 months before that date, each one.
- (h)(iv)A pest inspection report
If the residence has been occupied, on the same 3-month rule.
Section 9 of the Act lists further items this guide does not set out, so the Act itself is the full list.
The building conveyancing inquiry documents and the building and compliance inspection report are not required for a residence that has not been occupied or sold as a dwelling before, or one to be built before the sale completes.
However, a listed document is not required if the seller cannot obtain it after taking all reasonable steps.
The building and pest reports
The law keeps those reports at arm’s length from the seller. The person who prepares them must not be a family member of the seller, or of the seller’s agent or lawyer, nor a member of a firm that the seller, the seller’s agent or lawyer, or a family member of any of them belongs to, nor someone carrying on a business in whose profits any of those people has a direct or indirect right to share. The regulation adds that the person must have professional indemnity insurance that relates to the subject of the report.
From the advertisement to the contract
The energy rating reaches the buyer first. It is an offence to publish an advertisement for the sale of premises that does not state the energy efficiency rating of the habitable part. Before the contract, the seller must give the prospective buyer a copy of an energy efficiency rating statement for the habitable part, or a new one where building work since the last statement affects the rating. A seller who does not is liable to pay the buyer 0.5% of the purchase price.
Who the rules bind, and the most each can cost
| The rule | Who it binds | Maximum |
|---|---|---|
| Every required document open to inspection when an offer could be made | The seller | 10 units |
| The required documents at the agent’s place of business, when the agent offers a home | The agent | 50 units |
| No special condition inserted into a proposed contract | The agent or assistant property agent | 10 units |
| An energy efficiency rating in every advertisement | Whoever publishes the advertisement | 5 units |
| No statement in a relevant document known to be false or misleading, or misleading by omission | Whoever makes the statement | 100 units |
A retirement village unit follows a different timetable: its seller must make the later required documents available no later than 14 days before the contract is made, unless the buyer agrees otherwise.
This guide does not set out what an ACT buyer can do if a required document is missing or wrong; the conditions every contract must include are in section 11 of the Act.
The buyer’s cooling-off
The buyer’s cooling-off period runs from the moment the contract is made until 5 pm on the fifth working day that follows. There is none where the buyer is a corporation, where the home is sold by tender or at auction, or where the contract is made on the day an auction passed in and the buyer was recorded there as a bidder or as a person a bidder was bidding for. A buyer may waive it only after a lawyer’s advice on its effect, with the lawyer’s signed certificate given to the seller before the contract is made. A buyer who rescinds in the period forfeits 0.25% of the price to the seller, recoverable from any deposit. If a contract is rescinded in the cooling-off period, an agent is not entitled to any commission or expenses from the seller for it.
NSW attaches its documents to the contract instead, as the NSW paper sets out, and Queensland hands its statement over before the buyer signs, in the Queensland paper.