What a section 32 vendor statement covers (Victoria)

In Victoria, section 32 of the Sale of Land Act 1962 requires the vendor to give the purchaser a signed statement before the purchaser signs the contract. It is a set of disclosures about the land. It is not a report on the condition of the property.

Who prepares it

The statement is usually prepared by the seller's lawyer or conveyancer, not by the agent. It comes from the vendor's side, so the person to read it for a buyer is the buyer's own lawyer or conveyancer.

What it discloses

In summary, and in our words rather than the Act's:

• financial matters (section 32A): mortgages that are not discharged before possession or rents pass, statutory charges, and unpaid rates and outgoings;
• land use (section 32C): easements, covenants and restrictions and any known breaches of them, whether the land is in a designated bushfire prone area, road access, and, for land under a planning scheme, the scheme, the responsible authority, the zoning and the overlays;
• notices, orders, declarations, reports or proposals from a public authority that directly and currently affect the land and that the vendor could reasonably know of, including a notice of intention to acquire under the Land Acquisition and Compensation Act 1986 (section 32D);
• for an apartment or unit, an owners corporation certificate and documents.

A second, additional statement applies to a terms contract, or where a mortgage will not be discharged at settlement.

When it is missing or wrong

Consumer Affairs Victoria says a contract may not be binding on a buyer if the statement is missing, incomplete or inaccurate, and that a seller's duty to disclose cannot be removed by a term in the contract. What a buyer can do about it, and by when, is a question for a lawyer or conveyancer.

What it does not cover

Consumer Affairs Victoria says the statement does not cover the condition of a building, whether it complies with building regulations, or whether the title measurements are accurate. For zoning it names the zone and the overlays. It does not give a flood depth, a bushfire attack level or a boundary. It is not a guarantee, and it is not an inspection.

The statement and the planning certificate

Planning Victoria says a planning certificate is used to satisfy the Act's requirement to give zoning and overlay details. The certificate is issued under section 199 of the Planning and Environment Act 1987 and can be obtained through Landata or the council. It states the zone and the overlays. It does not state where the boundaries are.

The due diligence checklist is a separate document, published by Consumer Affairs Victoria. It is not the section 32 statement.

What our report shows, and does not

Our report does not read or reproduce any section 32 statement. For a Victorian address it reports the zone and the planning overlays from the planning scheme as separate lines, and where it names who to ask or what to check, the section 32 statement and the planning certificate are among them. It also asks the buyer to request both from the agent before signing anything.

None of the content of the statement is in the report: title, mortgages, easements, covenants, rates, notices from public authorities, owners corporation details, building permits, insurance or land use history. The report does not say what the statement says, and it does not replace reading it. The same question for New South Wales is answered by the section 10.7 certificate. Victorian councils are listed on the Victorian council pages and mapped on the Victorian hazard map.

Reports from $9.90 including GST, paid once. The price belongs to the jurisdiction the address is in. The check is free: it tells you the exact total for your address, and which registers cover it, before you pay anything.