Title Search Requests

After you sign a contract of sale for the purchase of a property, one of your first tasks will be to find a Settlement Agent or company to manage the conveyancing process for you. When you’re ringing around various firms to get a quote, you will often hear terms like ‘Title Search’ and other searches… but what are they?

Property Searches

The term ‘searches’ refers to various property searches designed to find out if there are any problems with the property or the seller that would have a material effect on the buyer. The aim is to ensure the property is exactly as described to the buyer when they signed the contract, is free from defects, and is able to be sold by the seller.

In Western Australia there are many searches that can be conducted, some of them are a requirement of the transaction, while others are optional and only necessary if you have a particular concern about the property or its location.

Standard property searches include information such as:

• Copy of Certificate of Title
• Property Interest Reports
• Copy of survey or strata plan
• Land and property details
• Aerial photograph
• Sales history

Most buyers will only undertake the standard searches in order to save costs; however it is worth considering undertaking the extra searches, which can include:

• Local places of interest
• Suburb demographics
• Average type of property for the suburb
• Suburb sales profile
• Gross rental values and unimproved land vales

… and more.

Remember that you are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on the property and a search that costs less than $100 can save you a lot more down the track and give you peace of mind.

BE PREPARED!

A prudent buyer may prefer to order their own Title Searches, Strata Plans, Survey Plans or Property Interest Reports before they place an offer to purchase a property.

A Title Search could reveal a myriad of Caveats, Covenants, Encumbrances, Easements, and Notifications affecting the land. Upon receiving these reports, you may decide that you don’t wish to pursue that particular property any more and move on without the headaches of dealing with the issues after you’ve had an offer accepted.

Likewise, a prudent seller may like to order a Title Search on their property when they are thinking of selling just to make sure that the Title is in order and ready for a sale to happen.

Landgate have a 24 hour a day property title search service whereby anybody can purchase a Title Search or Strata Plan Survey Plan of a property, Property Interest Report or more…

All you need to do enter a street address and have your credit card ready to make payment.

Once you order your own Searches from Landgate, please feel free to contact any one of our many Conveyancing Specialists for FREE advice if you have any questions about your Title Searches.