Property Law Gold Coast update – Making contract to purchase subject to finance approval

As a direct result of the Global Financial Crisis, the vast majority of conveyancing contracts our office is involved with are conditional upon finance approval being issued to the buyer(s).

The standard REIQ contract provides for a Contract to be conditional upon finance approval if the buyer(s) fill in the details of the following three items:

Finance Amount: $

Financier:

Finance Date:

Generally, if a buyer is unsuccessful in obtaining finance approval, they can terminate the Contract without penalty. However, buyers must be careful that if they insert a particular bank or lender in as the preferred financier then it must be that lender that has declined their finance application. If the buyer choses not to apply to the preferred financier, the Contract must be amended to allow for this otherwise the buyer may not be entitled to terminate the Contract and suffer penalty if they try. Such penalty can extend to the entire deposit payable under the Contract.

To avoid such penalties being incurred, buyers should always use property lawyers who have experience in the field of conveyancing and are update to date with the developments in the courts as to the termination of Contracts. McLaughlins Lawyers have the necessary experience to protect you from such pit falls.