Whether you are buying or selling a property it is important that the Agreement for Sale and Purchase accurately records your intentions. 

Here are some tips to ensure that a little issue does not turn into a big one…

  1. The date of the Agreement – if the Agreement is undated or dated incorrectly, then it can cause real difficulties when ascertaining the commencement of timeframes for conditions.
  2. Not all the vendors included – if the property is owned by Mr and Mrs Smith but the Agreement only names Mr Smith, then the Agreement can be unenforceable.
  3. Words and figures of the purchase price do not match – this often happens when there has been a series of counter-offers. The result is that there can be confusion on what the agreed purchase price is.
  4. Settlement date omitted - if there is no date for settlement the Agreement cannot be enforced. If there is wording like “such date as the parties agree” this again is unenforceable as either party could be quite entitled to refuse to agree a date and thus avoid the contract.
  5. The special conditions are unclear – all conditions must have specific timeframes for satisfaction and clearly state the benefiting party’s intentions.
  6. The chattels list – you need to ensure that all chattels that you expect to be included in the sale/purchase are listed in the chattels list.  Furthermore, on settlement a vendor must provide these chattels in reasonable working order where applicable but otherwise in the state of repair at the time the Agreement was signed and not subject to any charges, such as hire purchase charges.
  7. Agreement not properly signed – all parties that are recorded on the Agreement must sign the Agreement.  If not the Agreement may be unenforceable.

It is recommended that you ensure your legal representative reviews the Agreement prior to you signing it to ensure that it is in fully in order.