Conveyancing, wills and estates FAQs

Our fixed professional fee is $990 including GST for a residential sale and $1,499 including GST for a residential purchase. Searches, registration fees and transfer duty are additional third-party or government charges, and we set them out in writing before you engage us so the total is not a surprise at settlement.

Five business days for a standard REIQ residential contract, ending at 5pm on the fifth business day after the buyer receives the fully signed contract. A buyer who terminates during that period forfeits 0.25% of the purchase price. There is no cooling-off period on a property bought at auction, or on a contract signed on the same day as a passed-in auction.

Yes, and we review residential contracts free of charge before you sign. Once you have signed, the terms are set: finance and building and pest dates, the deposit, inclusions, disclosure and special conditions all become binding, and changing them afterwards depends entirely on the other side agreeing.

Thirty days from the contract date is the usual residential timeframe. Finance approval is commonly due at 14 or 21 days and building and pest at 7 to 14 days. Settlement happens electronically through PEXA, so nobody attends in person and funds and title move at the same moment.

In Queensland, only a solicitor can carry out conveyancing — the state does not license non-solicitor conveyancers. Some firms hand your file to a clerk with a solicitor's name on the letterhead. At Coastside Law a solicitor runs the file, so contract advice, special conditions and disputes are handled by the person doing the work.

Transfer duty is a Queensland Government charge calculated on the purchase price or value. Concessions apply for a home you will live in and for eligible first home buyers, and they can be worth thousands. We calculate the duty and the concessions you qualify for before settlement and lodge the documents for you.

Tell us before the finance date, not after. A buyer who is unconditional and cannot settle risks losing the deposit and being sued for the shortfall. Where the lender needs longer, we ask the seller for an extension in writing before the date passes — an extension requested afterwards has no contract to extend.

Since 1 August 2025 a Queensland seller must give the buyer a disclosure statement and prescribed certificates before the buyer signs. Get it wrong and the buyer may terminate at any time before settlement. We prepare the disclosure statement for sellers and check it for buyers as part of the contract review.

Only with the seller's written agreement, and it is riskier than most people expect — you take on the property before you own it, insurance and damage become contentious, and the seller loses easy remedies. Where it is genuinely needed we document the arrangement properly rather than relying on a handshake at the open home.

Yes, including the Aura, Baringa, Nirimba and Bells Reach releases. Developer contracts carry sunset dates, disclosure plan variations, later community title arrangements and covenants on build times and materials, and they are not the standard REIQ contract. We read the whole document, including the schedules.

$495 including GST for a simple will, $825 for a will and enduring power of attorney pack, and $1,499 for a couples pack of mirror wills and enduring powers of attorney. Estate planning involving companies, trusts, self-managed super or a blended family is quoted separately. We store original wills in safe custody free of charge.

It must be in writing, signed by the will-maker, and signed by two adult witnesses who are present at the same time and who do not benefit under the will. A beneficiary — or their spouse — who witnesses the will can lose their gift. The will-maker must also have testamentary capacity and be acting free of pressure.

Sometimes it is, and often it is not. The problems we see are wrong witnessing, gifts of assets the will-maker did not actually own personally, no substitute beneficiaries, and superannuation and jointly owned property assumed to pass under the will when they do not. Fixing those problems after death costs the estate far more than the will did.

It appoints someone to make financial and personal or health decisions for you if you lose capacity. Without one, your family may have to apply to QCAT for an administration or guardianship order, which takes months. For most adults it matters at least as much as the will, and for anyone in a retirement village or approaching aged care it is essential.

Somebody organised, contactable and even-handed — commonly a spouse, an adult child or a trusted friend. Always name a substitute in case your first choice dies before you or declines the role. One executor with a substitute is cleaner than two who must agree on everything.

Usually not. Superannuation is paid at the trustee's discretion unless a binding death benefit nomination is in place, and property held as joint tenants passes to the survivor by survivorship, outside the will altogether. We check how each asset is actually held before drafting, because that is where most homemade plans fail.

After a marriage, separation or divorce, a death in the family, a new child or grandchild, a property purchase or sale, or a move interstate. Marriage generally revokes an earlier will in Queensland unless it was made in contemplation of that marriage, which surprises a great many people.

A spouse, child or dependant can bring a family provision application in Queensland, generally within nine months of death, with notice to the executor within six months. A will cannot be made contest-proof, but clear reasoning, appropriate structures such as testamentary trusts and contemporaneous file notes make a claim far harder to run.

Usually where the deceased owned real property in their sole name, or held a bank, share or investment balance above the institution's threshold. Assets owned as joint tenants pass to the survivor without a grant. Where everything was jointly held and balances are small, a grant is often unnecessary — we tell you before you spend money on one.

Our fixed professional fee for a straightforward application for a grant of probate is $3,300 including GST, plus the Supreme Court filing fee and advertising costs. Full estate administration — collecting assets, paying debts, transferring or selling property and distributing to beneficiaries — starts at $8,800 and is quoted on the estate.

The notice of intention to apply must be advertised and served on the Public Trustee, and the application cannot be filed until at least 14 days later. Registry processing is commonly three to six weeks after filing. Most straightforward estates obtain a grant within six to ten weeks, and administration and distribution follow over the months after that.

Locate the original will, identify and secure the assets, advertise and apply for the grant if one is needed, pay debts and any tax, keep proper accounts, and distribute to the beneficiaries. Executors are personally accountable to the beneficiaries, which is why most sensibly instruct a solicitor and have the estate pay the cost.

The estate is distributed under the intestacy rules in the Succession Act 1981 (Qld), which set a fixed order — spouse, then children, then wider family — regardless of what the deceased may have intended. Somebody eligible must apply for letters of administration instead of probate, which takes longer and costs more than probate on a valid will.

Yes. A Queensland estate is administered through the Supreme Court of Queensland regardless of where the executor lives. We run those files by email, phone and electronic signing, and we regularly act for executors in other states and overseas without them travelling here.

It can be marketed and placed under contract, but the transfer cannot settle until the grant issues and the title is dealt with, so the contract needs a settlement date and conditions that reflect that. We coordinate the timing with the agent so the contract does not fall over waiting on the registry.

Our principal office is at 40 Theresa Street, Golden Beach QLD 4551, and we have a second office at 15 Fortune Street, Scarborough QLD 4020 on the Redcliffe peninsula. Monday to Friday, 8:30am – 5:00pm (after-hours appointments by arrangement). Members of the Queensland Law Society.

No. Most conveyancing, wills and estate files run by email, phone, video and electronic signing, and settlement itself is electronic. We are happy to see you in person at Golden Beach or Scarborough, and we make home and aged care visits for will signings where a client cannot travel.

Call 0488 340 853 or 0419 000 884, or send an enquiry through this site. Tell us the property or the type of matter and we will come back with the fixed professional fee, the likely third-party costs and the next step in writing.