Key documents

The paperwork of a purchase: what you have to produce, what you'll be handed, who makes each one and who explains it.

By Paddy Carroll · Founder, HomePlanner

A purchase generates a startling amount of paper, and it arrives in two directions. Some of it you produce, mostly for a lender. The rest is handed to you, mostly about the property. Knowing which is which — and who to ask about each — turns an intimidating pile into a checklist.

What you produce

This is the lender's side, and it is the part you can get ahead of today. Gathering it early is the difference between a pre-approval that takes days and one that takes weeks; the detail is in borrowing power and pre-approval.

Document	Usually means	Who wants it
Photo ID	Licence or passport, sometimes both	Lender, conveyancer
Payslips	Recent, and consistent with your stated income	Lender
Tax returns and notices of assessment	Two years if you're self-employed	Lender
Bank statements	Three to six months, showing real spending	Lender
Evidence of deposit	Where the money came from, including any gift	Lender
List of debts and limits	Cards count at their limit, not their balance	Lender

Genuine savings rules still apply at some lenders: money that has sat in your account for months is treated differently from money that arrived last week.

What you're handed

Document	What it tells you	Who produces it
Contract of sale	The terms you'd be bound by	Vendor's conveyancer
Vendor disclosure	Section 32, Form 1 or equivalent, by state	Vendor's conveyancer
Title search	Who owns it and what's registered against it	Your conveyancer
Planning certificate	Zoning, overlays, what can be built nearby	Council, via your conveyancer
Strata report	The building's finances, minutes and disputes	You order it
Building and pest report	The condition of what you're buying	You order it
Loan offer and mortgage documents	What you're actually signing up to repay	Lender

The contract and the disclosure statement are the two that bind you, and they are covered in detail in reading the contract.

Who explains what

Your conveyancer or solicitor

The contract, the disclosure statement, title, planning, and anything with a legal consequence. This is what you are paying them for, so ask rather than guessing.

Your broker or lender

Loan documents, what the conditions of approval mean, and which of your documents are still outstanding.

The inspector

The building, pest and strata reports. A good one will talk you through a finding on the phone; the report alone rarely tells you how serious something is.

Not the selling agent

They can hand you documents and they work for the vendor. Useful for getting hold of things, not the person to interpret them. See getting your team in place.

Do this in HomePlannerDocuments One place for all of it, so you and your conveyancer are reading the same version and the broker's request takes a minute instead of an evening.Free account required

Before you move on

Your lender documents are gathered before you need them
You've asked for the disclosure statement early, not at signing
You know who to ask about each document
Everything lives in one place, with one current version