As well as a finance condition, we recommend that as a minimum, you should consider these three items as additional conditions that should be included in the SALE AND PURCHASE AGREEMENT before you sign it: LIM, Builder’s Report, and Due Diligence 

LIM:

The standard form agreement includes conditions relating to the LIM on the property, but you must ensure that the LIM condition is circled on the front page of the agreement for it to be an active condition. For added safety, we suggest you include our precedent LIM condition into the agreement before signing CONTACT US as it provides greater flexibility to you than the standard clause.

The actual benefit of the LIM condition is detailed in the resource library under THE PROPERTY but basically it covers off making sure that all Council requirements have been met in respect of the property, including building permits, sign-offs and land issues.

You should also ensure that once you have a CONDITIONAL CONTRACT you should order the LIM from the Council as soon as possible, as you have five working days to do so under the general terms and conditions. 

LIM Review Service – If you would like us to undertake a review of the LIM for you, we offer a LIM review service which provides a detailed analysis of the LIM information. Please CONTACT US if you would like our assistance in this regard. This includes dealing with the Vendor’s solicitor and trying to have things sorted prior to settlement should any issues arise with the LIM. Please note that this LIM Review service excludes the actual purchase cost of the LIM from the Council, which we recommend you organise as soon as you have a CONDITIONAL CONTRACT.

BUILDER’S REPORT:

While a LIM report will provide you details of the Council’s records on the property in question it does not detail the structural integrity of any building on the property or what state of repair the building may be in. In order to have the ability to check these issues out, you should include a BUILDER’S REPORT CONDITION into the agreement before signing. This will then allow you to arrange for a builder to inspect the property and provide you with a report that you can review to make sure you are happy with what has been built on the property.

We have a specific BUILDER’S REPORT CONDITION that we can provide to you that will give you flexibility to make decisions on the purchase of the property once the report is received. CONTACT US. Please remember that this needs to be inserted into the SALE AND PURCHASE AGREEMENT prior to it being signed.

If you do include a BUILDER’S REPORT CONDITION as suggested we can also provide you with some names of contacts who can undertake the inspection for you. CONTACT US.

 

DUE DILIGENCE:

As a final suggested minimum to the CONDITIONS you should include in your SALE AND PURCHASE AGREEMENT we believe an all-encompassing DUE DILIGENCE CONDITION should be considered. This condition enables you to effectively have a cooling-off period whereby you can cancel the CONTRACT for any reason within a certain time frame, and not have to provide any specific details as to why you have reached that decision. The condition may sometimes be seen by a Vendor as being counter-productive to them achieving an unconditional sale, but we suggest that you include such a clause as often un-expected issues may arise which impact your purchase decision but don’t necessarily come within the ambit of the other CONDITIONS you have to enable you to cancel the contract.

CONTACT US to ensure you have the appropriate DUE DILIGENCE CONDITION included in your SALE AND PURCHASE AGREEMENT before you sign.