Property Hunter Magazine Issue 63- February 2015 | Page 38

CONTRIBUTOR| Chris Tan Chris Tan Lawyer Specialising in Real Estate Chris Tan is the founder and now Managing Partner of Chur Associates, a boutique legal practice that thrives in delivering business friendly solutions for its clients and having a niche positioning of ‘Everything Real Estate’ serving the entire value chain from the upstream to the downstream. Chur Associates is a boutique legal firm founded in 2004, specialising in designing legal solutions catered to our clients’ needs. Chur Associates’s brand promise is “We Deliver!” To that end, they offer clientsthe necessary means and methods to ensure their requirements are met. THE ROLE OF A LAWYER IN A PROPERTY TRANSACTION You can get in touch with him at Facebook: Chur Associates Email: [email protected] LEGAL TIPS AND TRAPS Y ou have just found yourself a dream home, or a potential property for investment. But not long after your initial excitement, you soon realize that the sweet joy of owning that plot of real estate isn’t as forthcoming as you thought. Instead, you are left completely baffled by the long and confusing process involved in property transactions. In fact, you really have no clue what to do next! Then, dear future homeowner, you should look no further than to your lawyer for assistance. As a purchaser, you can enlist your lawyer to assist you in each stage of the property transaction: Stage 1: Understanding the Property Stage 2: Pre-contract Negotiations Stage 3: Execution of Sale and Purchase Agreements Stage 4: Assisting in Financing Arrangement Stage 5: Discharge and Redemption 38 www.PropertyHunter.com.my Stage 6: Transfer of Land Stage 7: Apportionment and Follow up Typically however, investors and purchasers alike tend to engage a lawyer only during the stage of execution (signing) of the Sale and Purchase Agreement. Instead, they should maximize the service of their lawyers by bringing them into the picture as early as possible. No extra cost will be incurred by doing so, because the legal fees are governed and fixed to scale. STAGE 1: UNDERSTANDING THE PROPERTY Before actually deciding to buy, a potential purchaser should seek and gain an in-depth understanding of the property. This goes beyond a mere physical examination of the building in question, and