South Australian Current Acts South Australian Current Acts142A—Holding of deposit and other contract moneys when lot is pre-sold
(1) A person must not
sell a lot in a proposed community scheme before the plan of community
division is deposited in the Lands Titles Registration Office unless the
contract of sale provides, in accordance with any requirements specified in
the regulations, for any consideration payable by the purchaser prior to the
deposit of the plan to be held on trust by a specified legal practitioner,
registered agent or registered conveyancer until the plan is deposited.
(2) All consideration
payable by the purchaser prior to the deposit of the plan of
community division in the Lands Titles Registration Office under a contract
referred to in subsection (1) must be paid by the purchaser to the legal
practitioner, registered agent or registered conveyancer named or specified in
the contract of sale.
(3) In the event of a
contravention of subsection (1), the purchaser may, by notice in writing
given at any time before the plan of community division is deposited in the
Lands Titles Registration Office, avoid the contract of sale.
(4) If the
plan of community division is not deposited in the Lands Titles Registration
Office—
(a)
within such period after the date of the contract as is specified in the
contract in accordance with any requirements specified in the regulations; or
(b) if
the contract does not specify a period in accordance with
paragraph (a)—within 6 months after the date of the contract,
the purchaser may, by notice in writing to the vendor, avoid the contract of
sale at any time before the plan is deposited.
(5) Despite a
provision of this section, a purchaser cannot avoid a contract of sale under
this section if the purchaser has entered into a subsequent contract to sell
the lot to another purchaser (unless that contract has been avoided by that
purchaser).
(6) If a purchaser
avoids a contract of sale, all consideration paid by the purchaser under the
contract is recoverable by the purchaser from the legal practitioner,
registered agent, registered conveyancer or other person to whom it was paid
(but the purchaser may be liable to pay an occupation rent for any period
during which he or she was in occupation of the lot or entitled to receive the
rents and profits of the lot, if the payment of such rent has been agreed by
the purchaser).
(7) In this
section—
"date of the contract" means the day on which the contract of sale referred to
in subsection (1) was signed or, if the parties signed it on different
days, the last of those days;
"registered agent" means a person registered as an agent under the
Land Agents Act 1994 ;
"registered conveyancer" means a person registered as a conveyancer under the
Conveyancers Act 1994 .