Seller disclosure good for conveyancers and the community

SELLER disclosure is a great opportunity for conveyancers but consumers will need educating.

That’s the sentiment of Queensland Law Society chief executive Matt Dunn who believes putting the onus on sellers is a win-win.

Changes that come into force on August 1 are accepted as the biggest shake-up to the state’s property laws in 50 years.

The new seller disclosure regime that abandons the “buyer beware” attitude is at the heart of the changes brought about by the Queensland Property Law Act 2023.

Requirements for sellers to provide more specific details before entering into contract bring Queensland into line with other states.

“I think seller disclosure has a lot of opportunity for the profession and a good thing,” the CEO said.

“One of the great benefits that will come from this is having better deals.

“At the moment one of the problems that occurs is somebody sees a house, falls in love with it and signs a contract as an offer.

“The contract is done and then there’s a period of madness and fire that follows.

“Searches will come back. Sometimes they reveal significant problems with the property that perhaps nobody knew were there.

“That’s when the deal suddenly starts to go to Hell West and Crooked.

“There’s got to be a renegotiation of the price. Maybe that property that somebody wanted to do some alterations with can’t happen, because there’s now a statutory easement.

“If you can move more of that information to an earlier point in the contract, the parties can settle on something that’s closer to a fairer price at the beginning.

“You don’t have all that kind of panic halfway through the contracting process.

“I think once you’ve got a contract, the chances of something really horrible coming up in the process is pretty well minimised.

“And that contract will be pretty sound – and that’s a good thing.”

While there is more work needed on behalf of sellers, Mr Dunn said that was a good thing – and added that they also needed education.

“There’s a really good social good happening here in terms of the buyers becoming a little bit more educated, finding out more information,” he said.

“I hope firms will be reaching out and will be offering advice to those buyers about what disclosure means – so they can make a more informed decision.

“We have those conversations at a much earlier stage rather than right at the end when everybody starts to point fingers at everybody else.

“There’s a really good opportunity in this for partnerships between lawyers, real estate agents, sellers and buyers.

“You would think if you’re a seller and you get the disclosure documents prepared and you find in that that there’s some really big problem or something terrible … then that’s something you need to know earlier on.

“Instead of putting yourself in a position where your deal is going to fall over

“That just wastes everybody’s time and their money.

“Nobody wants contracts going bad at the end. That’s incredibly stressful for the practitioners, for the clients, for everybody.

“Anything that can be done to give people an incentive to need advice as well as more than just advice and the transactional processing of the conveyance is a good thing.

“Ultimately you know there’s some real benefits that can flow from this with the appropriate approach.

“People need to understand that there’s a new obligation and it will cost the seller some money.

“But then you know when you get the sale, you’ve got a good solid sale. That must be worth the expense at the beginning.”