Sale and Purchase Agreements

A Sale and Purchase Agreement is a contract between a buyer and seller when purchasing a property. It’s a legally binding contract, and penalties can be imposed if you pull out of the contract. Home Mortgage Services recommends you seek legal advice before signing a Sale and Purchase Agreement

Special Conditions

Special conditions should be included in a Sale and Purchase agreement. These are intended to protect you, the purchaser, when putting an offer on a property. Should these conditions not be fulfilled then you can withdraw your offer without penalty.

The following are common special conditions included in a sales and purchase agreement:

• Subject to Mortgage Finance within 5 working days
• Subject to a Registered Valuation within 5 working days
• Subject to a Builder’s Report within 5 working days
• Subject to a Title Search
• Subject to a Land Information Memorandum (LIM)

Subject to Mortgage Finance

This is very important when placing an offer on a property if finance has not been confirmed. Including this special condition makes the contract null and void if your mortgage finance falls through

Registered Valuation

Registered Valuations give you a fair market appraisal of the property value. This will give you peace of mind that you’re paying a fair market price. Making your offer subject to a registered valuation means you can renegotiate or withdraw your offer should the valuation be less than the purchase price

Builders Report

This will identify any construction, building, or engineering defects in the property you plan to purchase

Title Search

Your solicitor will search the property title on your behalf. This ensures ‘what you see is what you get’. Title searches provide information on boundaries, past building activities and other restrictions on what you may do with the land.