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Selling your property means that the ownership of the property would be transferred to a new owner. This legal process of ownership transfer is called conveyancing.
When it comes to legal matters, it’s always best to invest in the trusted lawyers in Malaysia. Most people would not hire lawyers when selling their property with the initial thought that they would have to pay for expensive services for a lawyer.
Handling legal matters requires a great amount of dedication and precision. There will be a lot of documents and people involved. Especially when you are selling your property.
Here are reasons why you should hire a conveyancing lawyer to sell property in Malaysia:
Knowledge and Expertise
Perhaps you’ve considered hiring a licensed conveyancer instead of a conveyancing lawyer in hopes to cut costs. Selling a property requires legal documents and a conveyancing lawyer is someone who is licensed to guide you through the legal aspects of selling your property and transferring ownership.
While a conveyancer may be knowledgeable in property selling and has gone through training, a conveyancing lawyer spends years and years of study in the legal department and has gained their knowledge from professors who are also experts in the field.
A lawyer is a professional in the field and would be able to take care of all the legal documents. It takes a lawyer to provide written legal advice and a conveyancer who is not a lawyer would not be able to create legal documents.
A lawyer has the capability to complete all the legal aspects of conveyancing. They are experts in the legal field and their capabilities would be more reliable knowing that they have spent years and years studying law.
A lawyer would be able to guide you through smoothly and efficiently. A lawyer’s capabilities and knowledge are more reliable.
Cost Efficiency
One might think that hiring a lawyer is more costly than hiring a licensed conveyancer. While it may be true that hiring a lawyer might be more expensive than a licensed conveyancer, one needs to take certain things into consideration when it comes to cost.
A licensed conveyancer who is not a law graduate is not able to create legal documents. By law, a licensed conveyancer does not have the capability to make any legal advice as well.
When one has to make a legal document, a conveyancer would have to hire a lawyer to create the legal documents. Therefore, one might have to spend more as compared to hiring a conveyancing lawyer who has the whole package.
In the end, the fees that one must pay to hire a lawyer might add up to less as compared to a conveyancer which one has to pay extra to hire an external lawyer in order to create the necessary legal documents.
Content Accuracy
One needs a sales and purchase agreement when selling property. As a sales and purchase agreement is a legal document, a lawyer would have the knowledge of the terms and conditions of the agreement.
A conveyancing lawyer would be able to write the terms and conditions in detail so that there would not be any loopholes in the agreement. An agreement is an essential part of the ownership transfer. The agreement serves as legal proof that the seller and the buyer have agreed to make a transaction under the written circumstances.
Protect Sellers
There are detailed steps to be taken during an ownership transfer of property. These steps are crucial and must be done carefully to avoid having future issues that might lead to legal disputes.
A lawyer is able to guide you through these legal steps to sell your property to avoid any fraud, disputes as well as any other issues that might halt the transfer process. Hiring a lawyer would protect sellers from these issues.
The appointment of a lawyer to act for the seller will ensure the proceeds of the sale of the Property i.e. the purchase price will be safely and securely be transferred to the seller at the end of the transaction
The seller will also be protected in the event there is any delay in paying and settling the balance purchase price for the sale of the property by the buyer. The seller’s lawyer will ensure that the vendor/seller will be able to charge late payment interest in the event the buyer is delayed in completing the sale and purchase.
Fraud
Dealing with a buyer could be quite difficult at times. Not knowing their backgrounds could be risky. Buyers could merely be saying that they want a transaction when they actually have malicious intent that usually happens during payment.
Selling a property involves a huge sum of money, most buyers would pay a one time deposit and the rest in installments. It is easy to miss one of the installments and at certain times malicious buyers could do this on purpose to pay a lower price.
In the case that the buyer has any malicious intent of fraud, the lawyer would be able to refer to the agreement to protect the seller. The lawyer would be able to bring the agreement to the table and discuss it with the buyer’s lawyer.
Hiring a lawyer protects both buyers and sellers from any attempt of fraud. The appointed lawyer would be aware of specific details to look out for in the buyer. A lawyer would know that Opposing lawyers are capable of doing a background check on the buyer and seller to prevent any legal issues from arising.
Disputes
Money has always been a very sensitive matter. When it comes to property selling, a huge amount of money would be involved. People will be very careful when buying property. A small argument could turn into a dispute if not settled.
This is where lawyers play a part to protect the sellers in case of an argument. So that the argument does not turn into a big dispute and become a legal issue.
Most people would only start looking for a lawyer when a dispute becomes a big matter that has to be taken to court. However, hiring a lawyer to guide you throughout the legal process of ownership transfer could save you from having to encounter any disputes.
As previously mentioned a lawyer has the knowledge and expertise in the legal department. Therefore, a lawyer would be able to take the necessary precautions to make any legal process go smoothly.
Ensure Buyers’ Qualification
Buying a property requires a huge sum of money. To ensure that the buyers are serious about the purchase and are able to fulfill all the payments, lawyers would be able to request certain documents from the buyers.
Buyers should provide documents like the buyer’s letter of approval to a mortgage loan or any other documents that could serve as proof of their financial stability.
It is not uncommon to request financial documents from buyers to provide proof that they are qualified for the purchase and to prove that they are capable of paying the installments on time. Lawyers will be able to gauge the buyer’s qualifications based on these documents.
These factors might be difficult to gauge based on your own perspective especially when you are new in selling property and there could be other judging factors that makes a buyer qualified to purchase a property, but a lawyer would know how to determine these factors, the types of documents needed and other details that should be looked at.
Hiring a lawyer would ensure that the buyer is qualified and that you will get your installments in time. A conveyancing lawyer would also be able to check whether the buyers’ documents are legitimate and not falsified.
So, Do I Need A Lawyer To Sell Property In Malaysia?
The simple answer is no. You can choose to sell your property without a lawyer if you are willing to take the aforementioned risks.
It is understandable that some people might feel skeptical or have negative perceptions towards hired agents like interior designers, property agents, or conveyancing lawyers. However, just like other agents, a conveyancing lawyer is hired to help the client get to the results that they need.
The key to making the process smooth is to ensure that you are hiring the best lawyers. It is safer to choose the lawyers yourself instead of a hired agent. Selling a property is an intricate process and it takes a professional to guide you through the process. There has to be trust between the conveyancer and the client.
Hire lawyers with good credibility. This is an important aspect to look at before you proceed to sell your property. The best lawyers would be able to guide the clients according to what the client needs in their best interest.
If you think hiring a conveyancing lawyer in Malaysia would be expensive and as a result, would decrease your profit from your property sales, you thought wrong. As a matter of fact, hiring a lawyer is an investment.
As previously mentioned, hiring a lawyer would save you a lot of trouble. From the knowledge and expertise to fraud prevention. Imagine having an encounter with fraud or disputes that leads to an even bigger issue. When issues become a dispute, it could be taken to court. It would cost much more to resolve these issues that could have been prevented with a conveyancing lawyer.
When selling property, hiring a lawyer would be a good investment to save you from paying unnecessary costs as they are professionals in the field. Lawyers would be able to guide you away from the common mistakes that people make during an ownership transfer.
Feel free to contact Sim & Rahman if you need help to sell property in Malaysia. We are a group of experienced conveyancing lawyers in Malaysia ready to help you with your property transaction needs.
