What is Conveyancing?
One of the first questions a lot of first home buyer clients ask me is “What is conveyancing and what do solicitors do in the conveyancing process?”.
To put it simply, conveyancing is the process by which real property is legally transferred from one person to another. In Australia, the owner of real property is “registered” as the owner of the property with the relevant State Government land department. The effect of being noted as the “registered” owner of real property is that no-one can steal your property or otherwise be entitled to claim ownership of your property. This obviously differs with the way we own moveable property such as televisions, stereos and mobile phones where you cannot be registered as the owner and you have no real way of proving that a particular item of property belongs to you.
The job of a solicitor in the conveyancing process is to ensure that this transfer of ownership occurs properly and safely for both the buyer and seller of real property. There are a number of potential pitfalls in conveyancing and it is the job of the solicitor or conveyancer to minimise the risks of these pitfalls affecting the client. The potential pitfalls and the exact job of the solicitor or conveyancer is different depending on whether they are acting for the buyer or seller.
In the next issue of this blog I will outline in more detail the role of the solicitor or conveyancer in the conveyancing process.
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