Frederick Potter Standard conveyancing works well for most Sydney homes with clear title, approved buildings and simple sales. Many transactions are not of that kind. Routine processes cannot address legal questions raised by aging inner-city buildings, non-standard titles, tenanted properties and government acquisitions.
Company title apartments illustrate the problem well. Owners hold shares in a company that owns the building, and those shares entitle shareholders to occupy a specific unit. These apartments are concentrated in pre-1960s blocks in the eastern suburbs and lower north shore. Sales often require board approval, few banks accept company title as loan security, and the company constitution may restrict leasing and renovations. Buyers expecting a strata transaction are often surprised. The use of titles is yet another complication. There are small pockets of old system titles in New South Wales where there is no Torrens certificate and ownership must be established through a chain of historical deeds. Some parcels are qualified or limited title and some may be subject to Aboriginal land claims not resolved on Crown land. There is a lot of encroachment, fences and garages or eaves that cross the line. Often these conflicts are settled by property lawyers in Sydney working in conjunction with surveyors and the Encroachment of Buildings Act 1922.
Unapproved building work is often a risk with sales in established suburbs. Unapproved garages, backyard studios and enclosed balconies can also expose new owners to council orders. Vendors can seek a building information certificate to regularize works before listing and buyers can negotiate a special condition or price reduction to reflect the risk. Heritage-listed properties carry further restrictions covering both maintenance and alterations. Specialist reports are sometimes required before approval is granted for relatively minor changes.
Recent tenancy reforms have added complexity to tenanted residential properties. From May 2025, landlords in NSW will need to give a prescribed reason to end a periodic lease, and sale with vacant possession is one of a limited number of permitted reasons. In buying or selling property, care must be taken to look at the existing leases, particularly the notice periods in relation to the settlement date. The use of community titles, dual occupancy developments and properties sharing driveways gives rise to issues in relation to management statements, access rights and cost sharing obligations. These arrangements can work well but disputes between neighbors frequently arise from the time of purchase when the documents were not reviewed.
Compulsory acquisition is at the most complex end of the spectrum. The government has acquired homes and businesses across the city for large infrastructure projects, compensating them under the state’s just terms compensation legislation. Compensation may be for market value, for disturbance costs such as relocation and legal costs and for any special value the land has for its owners. Owners facing acquisition benefit from engaging property lawyers in Sydney who understand the valuation process, disturbance claims, and the negotiations that precede a formal acquisition notice.
When buyers and sellers approach unusual transactions with diligence, sound advice, and a practical grasp of timing, complexity rarely becomes a barrier to completion. Each of the situations described here has an established legal pathway, and experienced practitioners have followed those pathways many times. Complex property transactions in Sydney can reach a safe and orderly conclusion.