The OMB Law Board S4 Ep 1 | The 50-Year Law That’s About to Change Everything for QLD Home Owners

In this season-opening episode of The OMB Law Board, Simon welcomes Senior Associate Georgia, who returns from maternity leave to unpack one of the most significant changes to Queensland property law in over 50 years.

From juggling motherhood and career to tackling the new Property Law Act reforms, Georgia and Simon explore how this legislative shift will reshape the way Queenslanders buy and sell property — and what it means for both sellers’ disclosure obligations and buyers’ rights.

It’s an episode that blends real-life balance with real-world impact, offering practical insights for working parents, property professionals, and anyone preparing to step into the Queensland property market.

🎧 Listen now to find out what every seller needs to know — before signing on the dotted line.

What is The OMB Law Board?

Welcome to The OMB Law Board, the podcast where legal insights meet practical advice. Hosted by Simon Bennett, Managing Partner at OMB Solicitors, this show delves into what you can expect when engaging with OMB Solicitors. Specialising in property law and commercial law, OMB also boasts dedicated teams for estate planning, contested estates, body corporate matters, litigation, and family law.

Each episode features in-depth discussions led by experienced team leaders, some with over 20 years of expertise. You'll gain valuable knowledge on initial consultations, cost assessments, timelines, and the importance of clear communication and confidentiality in legal matters.

Join us to break down barriers and navigate your legal journey with confidence. Tune in for expert advice, client stories, and tips on how to prepare for your legal needs. The OMB Law Board is your trusted source for all things legal.

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I'm so pleased to have you all back for season four.(...) I'd firstly like to start by thanking all our viewers and listeners who have participated and joined us for the ride. Thank you so much. It's been an overwhelming success and hence we're back for season four. So look forward to you joining us throughout the season.

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Strap in, it's going to be fun.(...) So today I've got Georgia with me. Georgia is a senior associate in our property law team and Georgia, welcome back for season four of the OMB Law Board. Thank you Simon.(...) So Georgia, a lot has been happening in your life.

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Congratulations on baby number two. Thank you. And we've definitely missed you whilst you've been on maternity leave so it's great to have you back. Thank you.

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Let's just unpack that a little bit.(...) There's so much expectation on a mum and a career mum particularly. How do you fit it all in? How does that work? It's a big job. I mean having kids is sort of a job in and of itself and then I've got my job here at OMB which I love and will be returning to very soon. But it is a bit of a juggle, fitting it all in and balancing what everyone needs.(...) I guess the thing that I love is and particularly at OMB we're really supportive of our working mums and is that you can have it all. You can have the family, you can have your time with them, you can work flexibly and work remotely and still be available. And the technology today allows you to do it all. Are you finding that that is something that is beneficial to you? I do think that's the key. It's the flexibility. It's working from home. It's being able to take calls and send emails from my phone on the go and working from home, working in the office, mixing it up to be everywhere at once I guess. Well you're doing a great job and congratulations to you and I'm sure some of our listeners are in the same position. I'm sure they'll take some positive influence from you. You're a wonderful role model to working mums. So all of our working mums out there keep trucking away. I know it's hard work but we appreciate everything that you bring.(...) So Georgia, big news in property law. Huge news. One of the biggest changes in property transactional work in I don't know maybe 20 years. Tell us all about it. Yeah. So we've had the Property Law Act of 1974 for 50 odd years now and now we're pivoting into a new era and there's all these changes that are happening. For a variety of reasons I think partly to modernise that legislation and bring it into the 21st century and also to account for new risks that are apparent in this day and age and new circumstances as they evolve. So there's a lot of changes for sellers and buyers. A lot for sellers in particular. We're looking at more protections for buyers moving towards more of a New South Wales model where less buyer beware than we had before and more about the onus on the seller to the seller. So I know the legislation deals with a number of things but let's concentrate just on that piece you've talked about which is the transactional work for buying and selling residential and commercial property.(...) Queensland has traditionally had the Latin term caveat emptor let the buyer beware system whereby it's up to the buyer to conduct all the searches and make all the enquiries. Tell us, you mentioned we're going a bit towards the New South Wales system, tell us how that works and tell us how this legislation changes things for buyers and sellers in Queensland. So for people who have bought and sold in New South Wales before you'll know that the seller must provide certain information with the contract so there's certain searches that they perform on behalf of the buyer. They provide certain documents and certain information so the buyer gets quite a long contract to look through but they've got a lot of information that tells them what they need to know about the property so that they can make sure that they're in the right place. So they can make an informed decision and as Simon said previously it's been on the buyer to conduct searches which can be very expensive apart from anything else and often done after the contract is signed. So that means that buyers don't necessarily have a right of termination if something comes up that they weren't aware of and hadn't been disclosed to them. So what we're seeing now is a shift towards buyers being better informed and and sellers having more obligations in terms of providing that information to buyers pre contracts. So there'll be a new seller disclosure statement which is something that we'll cover in later podcasts.

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But what that means is that sellers need to be compiling a lot of information, doing certain searches, getting certain documents, they're called prescribed certificates that they'll be giving to their buyers before the buyer signs the contract so that buyers who are looking to purchase a property have all of this information at their disposal before they make a decision and commit to a property. They can do their due diligence, they can look it over and if something goes wrong with the seller not providing the right information those buyers will have clearer termination rights.(...) Wow. So that that really is a quantum shift. The current system in Queensland has been that the seller can just prepare a contract,(...) sign away and then it is up to the buyer to conduct all those inquiries, usually post contract but quite often some will be done prior but many will be done after.

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And that is changing now to place that obligation under this new legislation on the seller to get some of these things done upfront and disclose it prior to the contract. So I think it's important for sellers to understand what this means for them because previously sellers have had a lot of latitude in terms of what goes into the contract.

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Perhaps they don't disclose things because they don't feel that they have to, there's no obligation or they're unsure and that has sometimes been to the detriment of buyers. So there's definitely a change in that regard and sellers need to be well aware of this legislation. It's not something that you can bypass, it's not just a formality, it's something that could have really serious consequences for sellers down the track if they don't do this right. So sellers need to be aware of the information that they need to provide, they need to go and get that information if they don't have it to hand and they need to do it at the right time. They need to be giving this information to buyers before a contract is formed. Yeah, that's really, I think you hit on some really good points there. The importance of getting this right for a seller,(...) it's super important because otherwise the contract could be terminated, is that right? Yeah, there's a lot of circumstances where a buyer will be entitled to terminate if the information isn't disclosed at the right time, it's not the right information, there's information missing. So it's the kind of thing that sellers really need to make sure they're doing right.

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It's something that they probably need to come to us with at OMB because first of all there's information that we can obtain through our searches that is not readily accessible to sellers yet they still have to disclose it. And because the risk of getting this wrong is really serious, you could lose your sale, you could get all the way to the end to the day of settlement and this thing could fall over. So it's really important to get it right. Yeah, so I think we're going to address, it's a really big area and in a later podcast with Bailey from our property law team we're going to drill down on some of these specifics but understanding what's in this new seller disclosure, there's questions and representations that a seller is going to have to answer and if they're unsure,(...) they can't just guess these things, they're going to have to conduct a search to find out if they don't know. Yeah, I mean it's likely that we'll have scenarios where sellers simply don't know the answers to the questions. Some of them are more on the technical side but a seller can't just say I don't know, no one ever told me that, I've never been told about that. That's not going to be enough. You actually have to go and find that information because you have to provide a complete disclosure statement.

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And procedurally, this is where I think things have really changed, is in New South Wales solicitors generally prepare contracts because of the complex nature and in Queensland agents have generally prepared contracts. Do you see that procedure changing? It could well do. I do think that solicitors are going to play a really important role in preparing these seller disclosure statements and certainly if I were a seller I'd be wanting OMB to prepare the complete suite of documents. You want to do it in one go, you want that seller disclosure statement, you want the contract, you want all of your special conditions in, you want to know that it's all consistent and you've disclosed the right information. So I do think there is a role here for us at OMB to really step into that space that's been created through this legislative change. Well, I find that extremely interesting and as I think we mentioned at the outset, this is one of the biggest changes in property law in Queensland for a long period of time. And we're so glad that you're all over this Georgia and we love having you back as part of the OMB property law team and thanks for coming in today. I'm sure that our listeners found it extremely informative. Thank you, Simon. And if you've got any specific questions, hit the comment section below and we'll endeavour to get back to you. We do appreciate your interaction and we look forward to unpacking.

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