Buying Property within Your Family

So you want to buy the family home from your parents or buy a property owned by other family members and you are wondering what is involved?

If you are buying or selling property within your family, there is usually no need for a Contract of Sale to be prepared. The only requirement is that you are related parties by either blood or marriage. Because you are related, this means that you do not usually need to engage separate solicitors to assist you. We can usually assist all family members with the forms and formalities involved in arranging for the property to be sold from one family member to another.

Even though you have agreed on a purchase price, you will need to obtain a valuation from a professional valuer. This is required to allow the State/Territory Government to calculate the stamp duty that must be paid on the transfer of the property. In some cases, such as a transfer between spouses, the stamp duty amount is nominal.

If you will be financing your purchase through a bank or other lender, they will conduct a valuation as part of the unconditional finance approval process. If you are financing the purchase of the property without a bank or lender, you can find the names of local valuers from the Yellowpages Online.

In the meantime, we will prepare the Transfer document on your behalf and provide it to you for your signature. Once the valuation has been completed, you will need to provide us with a copy and we will lodge this along with the Transfer to the State/Territory Government for stamp duty assessment. It generally takes approximately 10 business days to be assessed. Once the assessment has been received, we arrange with you for the stamp duty to be paid and book in a date for settlement. How quickly the property can settle will depend on your bank and if your family members have an existing mortgage over the property which needs to be discharged on settlement. If they do, we can assist them with liaising with their bank to arrange the discharge of their mortgage.

Feel free to contact us for advice about your particular circumstances for buying property within your family.

The material in this blog is general in nature. It is made available on the understanding that OzPropertyLaw is not thereby engaged in rendering professional legal advice. Before relying on the material in any important matter, users should carefully evaluate its accuracy, currency, completeness and relevance for their purposes, and should obtain any appropriate professional advice relevant to their particular circumstances.

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