In Tasmania as you may or may not be aware when you sign a Contract to Purchase property in the absence of additional clauses being added into the Contract to protect your interests (which will likely significantly affect your negotiating position) you accept the property entirely as is where is regardless of whether the property is subject to illegal building work, boundary encroachments by neighbouring property, outstanding council certificates of completion, or the like. The Vendor also has no duty of disclosure in Tasmania.
The only protection offered within the standard form REIT Contract is the Purchaser’s require use, if this is marked as “residential” and the standard searches undertaken by your Solicitor or Conveyancer bring to light that for instance the property being purchased does not have legal occupancy or a block being purchased cannot be built on due to certain restrictions you may be within your rights to terminate the Contract pursuant to Standard Condition 4 (a) subject to legal advice confirming this.
Rather than including additional clauses in the Contract that may affect your negotiating position you may wish to not make any precontractual enquiries as to Council approval and elect to rely solely on Title Insurance.
The purpose of this blog is to bring to your attention that Title Insurance is available to all Purchasers of residential property in Tasmania.
Title Insurance is a specialised type of Insurance that provides protection for purchasers of residential property against defects unknown to them at the time of Settlement. Title insurance is a one off premium of around $400.00 payable at Settlement and the coverage lasts for the purchasers entire ownership of the property. As with any insurance a claim title insurance is subject to the usual claim process, however, if you were to make a claim in terms of boundary encroachments or illegal building work following purchase of the property if the claim is approved it can result in the insurer paying for remediation works or attending to everything required in order to bring the structure etc to current council standard & obtaining all relevant certificates of completion depending on the circumstances.
Below are some helpful links that provide further information:
https://www.firsttitle.com.au/contents/what-is-title-insurance