A key legal development in strata law this year has been the NSW legislature’s prohibition against any strata by-laws which purport to impose blanket bans on pets within buildings. Specifically, a new section 137B was inserted into the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (NSW) stating that a by-law is void

From 11 October 2021, physical ‘paper title deeds’ will be abolished in New South Wales.  Evidence of legal ownership of a property will remain as established by the New South Wales LRS’s register of legal title – as it always has been, since the system of Torrens Title was created

Most people don’t buy or sell properties every day and so when they do some terminology used commonly in the property market that can be quite confusing. Two of those terms may be the ‘exchange date‘ and the ‘completion date‘ for your transaction. People sometimes confuse them being as being

Put & Call options are often used by developers purchasing parcels of residential property as a means of delaying stamp duty. We have written previously about some of the risks involved with these structures for vendors. A “put and call option” actually comprises two options: a ‘call option’ conferring to

In non-auction transactions in New South Wales, it is entirely possible  to make an offer to purchase a property for a given price (either verbally or via an informal written communication) and not necessarily be bound to complete the transaction. In fact, it is recommended to do this. It is

On 31 December 2020 new laws will come into effect changing the way surcharge stamp duty and surcharge land tax are applied to real property acquired or held in NSW by ‘discretionary trusts’.  A ‘discretionary trust’ (sometimes referred to as a family trust) is essentially any form of trust where

What is Limited Title property? In some relatively rare instances, your solicitor or conveyancer may advise you that the property you are intending to purchase is ‘limited title’. What does this mean? In short, this means that the boundaries of the land have not been verified by the Land Registry.

A new law has been passed in New South Wales allowing, for a period of time, for documents – including Wills – to be witnessed via video link software such as ‘Zoom’ and ‘Facetime’. The regulation which makes this route available is called the Electronic Transactions Amendment (COVID-19 Witnessing of

As the devastating effect of the coronavirus makes it way through our community and economy, some parties to contracts for sale of land have been asking whether an event of this magnitude could be grounds for either party being excused from performing their obligations under the contract. While there are

On 1 December 2019 new laws will come into force effecting how “off the plan” properties are sold in New South Wales. These changes include introducing a new disclosure statement as well as additional rescission rights for buyers where the final property or lot is not as promised. It also