Property Sale (Vendor) - NSW - Standard Residential Sale

Does a NSW vendor need an ATO clearance certificate and a land tax clearance certificate?: Usually both. The ATO says every Australian resident vendor must give the purchaser a clearance certificate at or before settlement; for contracts signed on and after 1 January 2025 the purchaser must otherwise withhold 15% of the price, whatever the value, and the ATO warns applications can take up to 28 days. Separately, Schedule 3 of the 2022 Regulation requires the vendor to serve a current land tax certificate issued under s 47 of the Land Tax Management Act 1956, generally at least 14 days before completion.

Jurisdiction: New South Wales. The sale is a private contract between vendor and purchaser; the transfer and any discharge of mortgage are lodged electronically with NSW Land Registry Services through an Electronic Lodgment Network Operator (ELNO) such as PEXA or Sympli, which the Registrar General says has been mandatory for all land dealings since 11 October 2021. This plan covers a standard residential sale of an existing Torrens title house or strata or community lot by private treaty or auction, from instructions to settlement. It is a vendor-side companion to the narrower Electronic Conveyancing Transfer (Vendor) plan.

The Process at a Glance: The file opens with conflict checks, sale instructions, identity verification and an immediate application to the ATO for each vendor's clearance certificate. The solicitor then orders the title search, planning certificate, sewer diagram, strata documents and any pool certificate, checks the Home Building Act warnings, tests everything against the vendor's prescribed warranty and drafts the contract with the current cooling-off statement. The contract and prescribed documents must be available before the property is advertised. After exchange the solicitor manages the cooling-off period, any tenant's termination notice and the outgoing mortgagee's discharge. Before settlement the vendor answers requisitions, serves the land tax and ATO clearance certificates, and the solicitor builds the electronic workspace and settlement statement. Settlement and lodgment happen together in the ELN, after which the deposit and keys are released and the vendor receives a final report.

Key Legislation: Conveyancing Act 1919 (NSW) s 52A (prescribed documents and warranties), Part 4 Division 7 ss 66K-66L (risk until completion) and Division 8 ss 66P-66Y (residential sales: s 66R advertising, s 66S cooling-off period, s 66T exceptions, s 66U rescission, s 66V 0.25% forfeiture, s 66W certificate, s 66X cooling-off statement). Conveyancing (Sale of Land) Regulation 2022 (NSW) ss 4-8, 16 and 21-23, Schedule 1 (prescribed documents), Schedule 2 (vendor warranty and adverse affectations), Schedule 3 (encroachments and land tax certificate), Schedule 5 Form 1 (cooling-off statement, amended by the Conveyancing and Real Property Amendment Act 2025). Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (NSW) s 10.7 (planning certificates). Swimming Pools Act 1992 (NSW) ss 22C, 22D and 30B and Swimming Pools Regulation 2018 cll 21-22. Home Building Act 1989 (NSW) ss 95-96 (owner-builder warning and insurance certificate). Residential Tenancies Act 2010 (NSW) ss 82, 85, 86, 87D and 87E (termination for sale). Land Tax Management Act 1956 s 47 as applied by Revenue NSW. Foreign resident capital gains withholding as administered by the ATO.

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