Contract of Sale of Real Estate
Standard Real Estate Contract 2014
This document is the new standard form Contract of Sale of Real Estate for use in the sale and purchase of residential real estate in Melbourne and greater Victoria.
Who can use the Standard Contract of Sale of Real Estate
Any person may use the Standard Contract of Sale of Real Estate document, including estate agents, lawyers, conveyancers and individual consumers, provided that it is used in accordance with the Guidelines For Copying and Use of the Standard Contract of Sale of Real Estate (see below).
How the Standard Contract of Sale of Real Estate document has been set out
This contract document follows the design of the standard form Contract of Sale of Real Estate as it appears in the Estate Agents (Contracts) Regulations 2008 amended as at 1 October, 2014. However, it has also borrowed from the formatting of its predecessors in order to give a more familiar look and feel.
Pages 1 and 2
Page 1 requires the address of the property to be entered where indicated. Nothing more is entered on this page. Page 2 is the signature page. The purchaser(s) sign to confirm the formal offer, and the number of days for which the offer remains open for acceptance by the vendor is entered in the brackets below the purchaser(s) signature block. Note that if no figure is entered between the brackets the offer expires automatically after 3 business days.
Pages 3 to 5
These last 3 pages of the document contain the Particulars of Sale, including details of any Special Conditions. These details are ordinarily completed by the purchaser or the purchaser’s legal representative.
Pages 6 to 12
Pages 6 to 12 of the document require no writing whatsoever, as they contain the General Conditions as required by the Estate Agents (Contracts) Regulations 2008. All variable information is confined to Pages 1 to 5 of the document.
(For an explanation of the General Conditions see our document “How To Understand The New Standard Form Real Estate Contract“.)
Explanation of the General Conditions
The front page of the document informs users that “A detailed explanation of the General Conditions of the standard form of Contract of Sale of Real Estate prescribed by the Estate Agents (Contracts) Regulations 2008 is available at www.lawyersconveyancing.com.au.”
Estate agents who are asked by purchasers as to the meaning of the General Conditions can simply refer the purchaser to this notice. In this way the estate agent is able to save time,avoid a ‘conflict of interests’ situation, and know that the purchaser will have access to a document that will provide information, without causing confusion or misunderstandings. (See our document “How To Understand the New Standard Form Real Estate Contract“.
Guidelines For Copying and Use of the Standard Contract of Sale of Real Estate
The Standard Contract of Sale of Real Estate document is provided for an initial cost of $20, and the purchaser may then use their downloaded PDF document indefinitely. However, it is important that we protect the integrity of the document with a few basic rules of use:
- The document must be downloaded in its entirety;
- The document must be used in its original format, and not reformatted in any way;
- The document must be printed from the original PDF, and not photocopied as a blank form; and
- The document must not be sold.
A breach of these guidelines will constitute a breach of copyright.
