When selling property, a commonly asked question is, what do I have to disclose. The last thing any seller wants to do is affect the value of their property by revealing unnecessary information.
Currently, there are certain mandatory disclosures that must be made as part of the contract documents themselves, some of these are:-
1-Pool safety certificates
2-Electrical safety switches
3-Smoke detectors
4-Neighborhood disputes
5-Encumbrances (both registered and unregistered) that affect the property
6-The Body Corporate Disclosure Statement (for units)
7-If the property is on the Contaminated Land’s registry
But outside of that, what obligations do Agents and Sellers have? Primarily, there is an obligation on Agents and Sellers not to mislead or deceive. Whilst this sounds clear, its application is incredibly murky, especially in Queensland. To start, agents are required to make reasonable attempts to be informed about the property, they aren’t however, required to incur expense in doing so. This largely means agents will ask their Sellers if there is anything that they know about the property that might affect their ability to sell it. This then places the burden back on the Seller to make the agent aware. However, that might not be sufficient where there is something well known in the area that the agent ought to have been able to discover easily and without cost.
In addition to the above, once the Agent is aware of a matter, they are required to advise Buyers of it should it be a material fact likely to affect a persons offer, such as a Death in the property, or if specifically asked about it and know the answer for more minor issues such as a lack of Council Approvals.
Ultimately, Disclosure in Queensland is a complicated discussion. It is best to seek advice on the matter when uncertain to avoid any risk of misrepresenting a property. If you have any questions related to disclosure, please don’t hesitate to contact the team at Conveyancing Connection.
