Resources

Is it time to revisit your standard form contracts? Changes to unfair contract laws in Australia.

When we see people to deal with estate planning, we often get questions about advanced care directives or “living wills”. In Australia, the typical language is advanced care directive.

Many businesses are operated by 2 or more co-owners. We often speak with clients who are looking to go into business, are in business or are looking to exit a business with other people. This resource lists the 16 essential issues that you should consider before going into business with another person or people.

We’ve all seen “the Castle” – a movie about ‘just terms’ compulsory acquisition of the Kerrigan’s home. Compulsory land acquisition is quite common. There is different land acquisition legislation across the Australian States and Territories. There is also legislation specifically empowering the Commonwealth Government to acquire land.

It is important when negotiating a commercial or retail lease to consider whether an option to renew should be included. This is equally important for landlords and tenants.

Agricultural land has been achieving historic prices recently. When you’re looking at buying a farm there’s always plenty of things to think about.

The NSW Government recently passed the State Revenue and Fines Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous) Act 2022. This Act made a raft of changes to various pieces of legislation that affect stamp duty and dealings with land.

Many businesses in NSW are bought and sold as a GST free supply of a ‘going concern’. Although the goods and services tax regime has been around since early 2000, the going concern exemption still troubles many people who are party to a sale of business transaction.

Recently Disney has been streaming the mini-series ‘The Drop Out’. It’s about Stanford drop out Elizabeth Holmes who founded a blood testing start up called Theranos.

With the devastating floods wreaking havoc across parts of the Country, we thought it was a good time to talk about what documents you should try and save if you need to leave your home in an emergency.

Buying a home is a significant investment. When you’ve just found your dream home, the last thing anyone wants to think about is whether there are any defects or faults that exist. However, thinking about this early will better safeguard you in making one of the biggest purchases of your life. A lot of first home buyers may cringe at the idea of paying additional costs on top of an already expensive purchase, however having a pre-purchase pest and building inspection done will provide you with peace of mind and may also save you money later down the track.

“How do I know that the vendor won’t open up another business down the road?”. This is one of the many important questions that you need to ask if you are looking to purchase a business.The answer is that with a properly drafted restraint of trade or non-compete clause included in the purchase contact you may be able to stop the old owner from competing with you.

On 11 October 2021 there will be 2 big changes to the land titles system in NSW: certificates of title will be abolished and all land dealings will be required to be lodged electronically. We give a run down on what this means.

We are super stoked to let the Coolamon community know that we will be setting up shop in your fine town.

Gazumping – it sounds like something out of a Dr Seuss book, not something that happens in real estate. You might be hearing the term more and more given the frantic property market we are experiencing. We break down what gazumping means and what you can do about it.