Buying a house is more than likely the most expensive purchase in your life. We will provide a brief outline here to some of the steps involved. You have carefully considered and inspected properties, and you have found the house or unit you want to be your new home. The seller will or should have…
You have found your dream home, and you visit your solicitor for his advice on the purchase. The solicitor’s aim is to ensure that your expectations are going to be matched by the terms of the contract and the vendors (sellers) obligations. The solicitor must receive full instructions to be able to provide the correct…
Property Purchase-Finance Last week you saw your solicitor and gave them instructions on what you are hoping to buy, and the solicitor checked the contract and attachments to ensure that it met your expectations. To have finance approved is critical. Once an unconditional contract is exchanged, the purchaser is “prima facie” (on the face of…
The Standard Contract for Sale of Land The appropriate mode of dealing with residential property in New South Wales is a written contract in standard form approved by the Law Society and Real Estate Institute joint committee. This contract sets out the rights and duties of both the purchaser and vendor. The twelve pages of…
High Range PCA Here we will discuss the seriousness of the High Range PCA offence. We hear it quite often on television advertising and see it on billboards, but it still shocks people who have been convicted of High Range PCA when they realise how serious the court considers the offence. It is one of…
In a previous article we spoke about high-range PCA and the sentences passed down prior to 2004, compared to those passed down since that date. Prior to 2004 in, for example, Newcastle Local Court, 45% of high-range PCA matters were dealt with by “s10”. Basically, this means non-conviction, similar to a “warning”. After 2004, Newcastle…
The law contains many Latin maxims. One of the interesting concepts that has not survived the reality of modern day living is “cuis est solum eius est usque ad coelum et ad inferos”. The meaning of which is “he who owns land, owns it from the heavens to the centre of the earth”. This meant…
In a previous article “I Own That Sky”, we discussed a somewhat fanciful concept that when you own a block of land, you own the airspace up to the heavens above, and the earth below to the middle of the earth. Not surprisingly, legislation has now cleared the situation where aircraft are allowed to pass…
Lately, reports of bullying at schools and via the internet, and the repercussions of these acts have been surfacing in the media quite often. Gone are the days when a “bully” was typically the strongest or most aggressive boy at school, who as we grew older we learnt that they had significant problems for which…
In “Cyber-bully (Part 1)” we discussed modern day bullying, commonly called cyber-bullying. There are obviously ways of stopping your child from being bullied, such as approaching teachers and parents close to the source, but there are times when you will require the law to stop this behaviour. Common law (law made by judges) provides some…