If you would like to measure how professional or competent your conveyancer is, just observe the way they prepare themselves and their contacts in the real estate sector for June 30.
This is not just an arbitrary date.
June 30 is a crucial date for real estate transactions because negotiations that began towards the end of the old financial year will almost certainly cross over into the new financial year, triggering different ways to handle the rates and charges on a property.
And as conveyancers who are relied upon to get the details right, we believe it’s prudent for us to alert all parties to property transfers on ways to navigate the changeover period without error and without excess or duplicate charges.
Prior preparation prevents poor performance- especially with Form 1 documentation
The old saying of prior preparation preventing poor performance applies perpetually to conveyancing but at June 30 the ultimate test arrives.
The challenge of June 30 is that various rates and taxes change as at July 1 and under the law, the quoted values in the Form 1, which accompanies the sale contract of property, must be accurate at the date of serving on a Purchaser.
In cases where real estate agents either have contracts on a property or are likely to close a sale before June 30, or have an upcoming auction, there is not much to be done other than ordering full searches on information needed for Form 1‘s now as these Form 1’s should be accurate if served prior to June 30.
However, if deals are not likely to be struck until the new financial year, we urge agents to hold off on ordering full searches until the first week of July, that way the Form 1 served in the new financial year will have the new rates details.
While we have written to real estate agents with this timely reminder today, if you are a vendor it might be prudent to raise this with your agent or direct them to this article for reference.
Black and white is nice but grey might be prudent around June 30
Through our sister company, Eckermann Vendor Statements, we help real estate agents stay well abreast of the June 30 challenge by offering our Staggered Form 1 option.
With a Staggered Form 1 option, Certificates Of Title can be obtained before June 30 with the rest of the the searches needed to complete a Form 1 held off until the new financial year, or you can choose to have the complete process scheduled for after July 1 and we’ll notify you just before processing so you can confirm it.
And as part of our customer focus, which many real estate agents share, our advice for getting rates and taxes information for advertising ahead of the new rates from July 1, is to ask your vendor. This saves them for being charged for two lots of searches, as we can hold back on the official search as part of the Form 1 process when an actual contract is ready for preparation.
Leave nothing to chance
Other than writing to real estate agents with this information, the Eckermann team has also implemented other measures to ensure property settlements in South Australia that we’re involved with go smoothly at this time of year, such as:
- Implementing an internal system to check with all search requests during this period to make sure the timing is appropriate
- Liaising directly with Revenue SA regarding Emergency Services Levy and Land Tax certificates (they won’t be available from Monday June 29 until Monday July 6, with delivery unlikely until some time in the second week of July due to their backlog)
- Establishing contact procedures for local councils so we can let agents know when the new rates are to be declared by the Council (they are often not ready by July 1 and can be up to 2 weeks into July)
From the perspective of the Eckermann Group, June 30 is business as usual however we do deploy extra hands on deck and seasonal systems to make sure this annual transition month goes as smoothly, accurately and economically as possible for all parties involved.
If you are an agent not in our database and getting our timely alerts and advice bulletins yet, please email info@eckermannconveyancers.com or call us on 08 8366 7900.
