Stage one: the review
This is the investigation and risk assessment stage. The legal review determines whether the property is safe to acquire for your intended purpose, under what conditions and with which contractual protections.
It draws on title, registry, cadastral, municipal, environmental and transactional information, and on independent technical input where boundaries, terrain or development potential are relevant.
Why the lawyer leads it
Technical professionals provide essential independent findings. The lawyer defines the legal questions, protects the buyer through the purchase agreement, reviews the public and transactional record, coordinates the specialists, and explains how each finding changes the acquisition.
Without that coordination, a survey discrepancy becomes a conversation with a surveyor, not a condition in a contract with a deadline attached.
Stage two: closing and registration
Closing is where the conditions are satisfied or waived, funds move, the transfer is executed and registration is pursued. Each step should have a document, a responsible party and a date.
The protection built in stage one either survives into stage two or it was decoration. That is the test we apply to our own files.
What buyers should ask before signing anything
Who holds the deposit, and on what written instructions is it released? What happens if the cadastral plan does not match the fence? Which conditions must be met before the second payment? What is the long stop date, and what does the seller owe you if it passes?
If the answers are not in the document, they are not protections. They are expectations.
This note expands material originally published by Simple Legal Consulting.
Read the original article