When a Victorian sale stalls, the cause is usually a document, not a buyer. A section 32 vendor statement missing a certificate. A title search taken too early. A special condition that fights the standard terms.
Each one stops the contract moving while somebody chases paper. The fix is almost always available weeks earlier.
This is written for vendors in Melbourne who are about to list, or who have just listed and want to know what could go wrong. In conveyancing Melbourne sales, these seven mistakes cause most of the avoidable delays. It is general information about the Victorian process, not advice on your own sale.
Why conveyancing Melbourne sales stall before anyone makes an offer
What happens when the paperwork is incomplete
A buyer signs what you give them. If what you give them is incomplete, one of three things happens: they wait, they negotiate, or they walk. All three cost you time, and the first two usually cost you money as well.
The section 32 vendor statement does most of the work
The vendor statement is the document doing the work here. Under the Sale of Land Act 1962 it is what a vendor discloses to a purchaser before a contract is signed. It is also where the preventable faults gather.
Our full Section 32 preparation checklist for vendors sets out what belongs in it. This piece is about what goes wrong.
Vendor statement and disclosure mistakes
1. The vendor statement is assembled after the campaign has started
Certificates take time. Council, water authority, owners corporation and land information certificates all arrive on somebody else’s schedule, not yours, and you cannot shorten that by asking twice.
There is also a change coming that makes this worse for late starters. The Consumer Legislation Amendment Act 2026 received Royal Assent on 8 September 2026.
As the Bill was explained to Parliament on 4 June 2026, it requires a vendor to make the section 32 statement available earlier. The window is at least 14 days before an auction or fixed-date sale, or 14 days before a contract is signed.
Commencement dates for that requirement had not been published at the time of writing. Treat it as a change to plan for rather than a rule that applies today. Check the current position before you set an auction date.
2. Recent building work is disclosed the old way
This one changed on 1 July 2026, and a lot of the guidance still circulating has not caught up.
Domestic Building Insurance was replaced by Home Warranty on that date. Home Warranty applies to eligible domestic building work valued at more than $20,000; the old DBI threshold was over $16,000. Contracts signed before 1 July 2026 that already carry a DBI Certificate of Insurance continue under DBI.
If you built or renovated recently, two questions matter. Which scheme does your work sit under? And is the certificate you hold the one the buyer’s conveyancer will expect to see? Getting that wrong does not usually kill a sale. It does reliably add a fortnight.
3. Owner-builder obligations are discovered at the last minute
iIf you carried out the work yourself, the obligations are heavier and they have a long tail.
An owner-builder selling within six years and six months of completing work valued at more than $20,000 has two obligations. The first is a defects inspection report from a prescribed practitioner, not more than six months old. The second is insurance cover.
The Building and Plumbing Commission is explicit that the Notice of Cover and the defects inspection report go into the section 32 statement. A defects report cannot be produced in a week. If this applies to you, it is the first thing to start, not the last.
Title, contract and land mistakes
4. The title search is stale
A title search is a snapshot of what is registered on the day it is taken. Take it early, then run a six-week campaign, and something can surface after a buyer has read the statement and made a decision.
The usual candidates are a caveat lodged by somebody with an interest in the land, or a restrictive covenant limiting what can be built. An easement giving a neighbour or an authority a right over part of the property is the third. None of these is unusual. All of them change what a buyer thinks they are getting.
Nothing about that is fatal. It is simply the wrong order of events. It puts you in the position of amending a document a buyer has already relied on. That is slower, and reads worse, than getting it right first time.
5. Special conditions that contradict the standard terms
Special conditions are where a sale is customised — a longer settlement, a rent-back after settlement, a deposit release, a condition about which chattels stay. They are also where drafting fights itself.
The standard contract already has general conditions covering most of these situations. A special condition written without reading them can end up saying something slightly different about the same event.
That is ambiguity, and ambiguity in a signed contract is resolved slowly, usually by two parties’ representatives writing letters. Every round of that is days you do not get back.
Caught before the contract is published, this costs an hour of somebody’s attention. Caught after a deposit has been paid, it costs a fortnight.
6. Nobody has checked what is registered on the land
Planning overlays and notices attached to the land are disclosure items, and they are also the items vendors are least likely to know about. A heritage overlay, a bushfire management overlay or a notice from an authority does not announce itself.
Contamination is the clearest example. EPA Victoria’s Priority Sites Register, accessible through Victoria Unearthed, shows sites with remedial notices about land and groundwater contamination. Land Services Victoria also introduced an Environmental Priority Sites Certificate for property transactions in 2026.
Checking early costs you an afternoon. Finding out from a buyer’s conveyancer costs you the momentum of your campaign.
Settlement mistakes in the final fortnight
7. Settlement logistics are left to the final fortnight
Discharging a mortgage, confirming adjustment figures for rates and levies, and lining up the incoming and outgoing lenders are all coordination tasks. None is difficult. All of them take other organisations’ time.
Settlement in Victoria runs electronically, and the electronic conveyancing Operating Requirements moved to version 7.2 on 30 June 2026. Land registration lodgment and search fees also rose on 1 July 2026, with the fee unit set at $17.27 for 2026-27.
The part vendors underestimate is the mortgage discharge. Your lender sets its own timetable for releasing the security, and a conveyancer cannot compress it by asking. If you have a loan over the property, tell your lender you are selling as soon as the campaign starts, not when a contract is signed.
In conveyancing Melbourne settlements, your conveyancer handles the mechanics, but can only work with figures and authorities that other parties have supplied.
Get your contract read before it goes out
Send us the draft contract and vendor statement before your agent publishes them. The review is free and no obligation. If you decide to proceed with us, we can also provide fixed-price conveyancing and guide you through settlement, but the choice is entirely yours.
What to start this week
| Task | Why it is first | Who you need |
|---|---|---|
| Order council, water and land information certificates | Longest lead time of anything in the statement | Council, water authority |
| Confirm the status of any building work in the last six to seven years | Decides which insurance scheme and which certificate applies | Builder, BPC |
| Order the owners corporation certificate, if applicable | Regularly the last document to arrive | Owners corporation manager |
| Run the title search close to, not far from, the campaign | Keeps the disclosure accurate on the day a buyer reads it | Conveyancer |
| Read the special conditions against the general conditions | Ambiguity is resolved slowly and always at your cost | Conveyancer |
Conveyancing Melbourne FAQs for sellers
Can I put the property on the market before the section 32 is ready?
Technically, yes — but it is the fault that causes the most delay, and the rules are tightening. Plan on having the statement complete before the campaign starts.
What happens if something is missing from the vendor statement?
It depends what is missing. Some omissions are corrected with a supplementary statement; others give a purchaser rights. This is exactly the question to put to a conveyancer about your own property rather than to a general article.
Do I need Home Warranty cover to sell?
Only if the work qualifies, and only where the building contract was signed on or after 1 July 2026. Earlier work with a DBI certificate stays under DBI. The obligations are heavier again if you were the owner-builder.
How long before settlement should I start all this?
Earlier than feels necessary. The certificates, not the contract, set the pace, and they are ordered from organisations that do not work to your timetable. A vendor who begins when the agent is appointed is rarely the one holding up a settlement.
Does an off-market or private sale change any of this?
No. The disclosure obligations attach to the sale of the land, not to how it was marketed. A private sale removes the auction, not the vendor statement.
Is this the same for a commercial sale?
The disclosure framework is different and usually more involved. Our commercial conveyancing page covers what changes.
Eagle Peak Conveyancing, Unit 1/21 Perpetual St, Truganina VIC 3029. Call 0485 952 616 or email support@eaglepeak.com.au.
Most of what holds up a Victorian sale is ordinary administration that started too late. The certificates take as long as they take. The building work either has the right paperwork behind it or it does not, and the title either reads as you expect or it does not.
None of that is a surprise if it is checked before your campaign begins. That is the whole argument for handing the contract and vendor statement to a conveyancer while you still have room to fix things.
Selling in Melbourne? Let us read the contract first
Send your draft contract and vendor statement for a free, no-obligation review before your campaign goes live.
