The AREA real estate purchase contracts all end with a section titled, “Conveyancing information”. Although the section itself is not part of the legal contract terms and imposes no obligations upon the parties, it is still an important section for the process to flow smoothly.
Let’s think through the reason why this section exists and what to do with it.
Context
The term “conveyancing” is actually a legal reference to the transferring of a registered land title from one party or entity to another. In the practice of real estate, this term has grown legs and walked into a broader definition to mean all the “stuff” the brokerage and legal staff need to do in order to get to the point where the lawyers can transfer the registered title and complete the transaction. This “stuff” includes:
All this background work is done by an army of magical creatures sometimes referred to as conveyancers, but in the modern vernacular, administrative support staff.
Purchase contract
In the AREA real estate purchase contracts, each contract has a section titled conveyancing information at the very end of the document itself. This section sits below the contract line in that nothing here actually affects, or is affected by the contractual obligations of the parties, but rather helps to inform the process steps of seeing the contract to completion. Here the information requested relates to the buyer and seller’s information, as well as their respective lawyer's contact information to help conveyancing staff complete the information they need for the transaction file.
Client information
Because the client names are already at the top of the document, this section seeks additional information such as address, phone, and fax of the client. It is understandable that in many situations members are hesitant to insert the client's information in this section to prevent the buyer and seller from being contacted by either the member opposite or the clients themselves.
It should be noted that the Provincially Harmonized Rules in Alberta, as well as the REALTOR® Code of Conduct both prohibit any REALTOR® member from using the information in a contract to contact the party opposite without going through the client's representative. Is it possible the buyer could call the seller, or vice versa, sure but they have limited reasons for doing that anyways.
Lawyer Information
This portion is of significant value to the document for a couple of reasons.
Additionally, the lawyers conveyancing staff rejoice in getting the file at the earliest possible time to begin searches, funding requests, etc. that they need to do to avoid a late closing on the transaction. For the lawyer's information section to be completed in full for both buyer and seller helps the transaction to move much smoother and provides a clear disclosure of the legal representatives of the parties.
Lawyers Cooperate
Few have ever really thought about the closing process once the negotiations and contract signing are completed however, once the contract conditions are removed, the lawyer's offices take over.
The brokerage who is indicated as handling the conveyancing in the contract will send over all relevant documentation and then the lawyer's offices and staff will coordinate the complex issues of closing the transaction between both lawyers. A lot of back-and-forth communications happen during the time between the removal of conditions and the buyer getting keys and the sooner this process can begin the better. For this reason, the conveyancing section being fully complete at the time of removal of conditions is wonderful!
Having been around for a while I know that this section is often neglected in the purchase contract and left up to the conveyancing staff to try and figure it out. It is a manifest disservice to the parties when the information required to move the transaction to close smoothly is not included in the document itself which is why this section exists in the first place. The AREA Forms and Practice Committee didn’t put it there for kicks, it is there for good reason and should be used where possible.
Oh, and don’t forget to thank those wizards of transaction magic also known as conveyancing staff for the work they do to keep the real estate train chugging down the tracks.