Hope Island is one of the Gold Coast’s most exclusive suburbs. Home to an enclave of exclusive housing estates, such as Sanctuary Cove and Hope Island Resort, with several world class golf courses meandering in between.
The property website Domain are currently running a series of articles on selling a property, covering aspects from presentation and market advise, to sales tactics and the conveyancing process itself.
Brisbane came alive this weekend for the annual Teneriffe Festival. The streets were lined with a festival of food, markets and entertainment.
So you’ve spent countless weekends scouring the suburbs of Brisbane, or the Gold Coast for that perfect property and you think you’ve finally found ‘the one’ and are ready to put in an offer and sign a contract of sale. It’s right about now that you need to tap the brakes every so slightly. There’s no point rushing in and signing your name, as the entire conveyancing process will be dictated by this contract, so you want to make sure you’ve got it right before signing.
So you’ve had your property on the market for a while and have now signed a contract of sale and sold your property. First of all congratulations on the sale! While getting that offer may be exciting at first, we’re sure that a bit of stress is beginning to creep into your mind as you start to consider the long list of things you now have to take care.
We're sure you've been told once or twice before about how important it is to have a will in place, even when you're not planning to 'kick the bucket' anytime soon. Our conveyancing solicitors make sure that at the end of each sale or purchase the client is reminded that they need to put a will in place. Unfortunately there are a great deal of people out there who still don't have a will in place.
A recent defamation case heard by the Supreme Court of New South Wales has highlighted the importance of carefully constructing your case for defamation and who the parties you wish to sue are. Taking legal action can be a very expensive and time consuming process, so the last thing you want to do is waste money casting your net too wide and suing people or organisations who aren’t responsible for the damage done to your reputation.
In most cases for a Will to be valid in Australia it is required to be a written document that is signed by the testator in the presence of two or more witnesses. While it is always preferable to have a Will constructed in this way, the legislation that exists in Queensland does allow for the courts to dispense with these formal requirements in certain circumstances and admit what is termed an ‘informal will’.
The Federal Government has released information about proposed changes that are to be made to the Trade Practices (Industry Codes – Franchising) Regulation 1998. The proposed amendments are expected to take effect from 1 January 2015 and apply to new franchise agreements entered into on or after 1 January and existing franchise agreements renewed on or after 1 January, with some limited exceptions.
Since changes to superannuation legislation in 2007, which allowed for self-managed super funds (SMSFs) to borrow money for property assets, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of people setting up a SMSF in order to purchase an investment property. Whilst there are many benefits to this, there are strict rules which must be followed.
If you believe that you were left out of a loved one’s Will, or that they did not make adequate provision for you then there are steps you can take to challenge it. The first step to would be to bring a ‘Family Provision Application’ (“FPA”), which is a challenge against the estate disputing the distribution of the contents of the Will. Usually an FPA is filed when due to certain circumstances a family member has decided not to leave anything to a person, or leaves them with too little.
