Preparing the seller disclosure statement: what a Queensland seller gathers

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Kooky

Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.

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There was a time when a Queensland seller could sign a contract with little more than a rates notice and a set of keys. That ended on 1 August 2025. Since then, the Property Law Act 2023 has required a seller to hand a buyer a signed disclosure statement and a set of supporting certificates before the buyer signs anything. A contract entered into without them is exposed for as long as it takes to reach settlement.

The statement is a form, and filling in a form sounds like an afternoon's work. In practice the form is the last step. Most of the effort is in collecting the documents that sit behind its answers, from several different bodies, and making sure they are still correct on the day they are handed over. This guide is about that collection: what each document is, who issues it, which sellers need it and what a seller is confirming by attaching it. It describes the seller's task. A buyer's rights under the scheme are a subject of their own.

Queensland Government, seller disclosure scheme guidance.

What the law asks for

The Queensland Government's guidance states the duty in a sentence: the seller must give the buyer a completed disclosure statement and the prescribed certificates before the buyer signs the contract. The scheme covers residential property, commercial property and vacant land.

Two things are being delivered, and they do different jobs. The disclosure statement is the seller's own document, an approved form known as Form 2, in which the seller answers a series of questions about the property and signs. The prescribed certificates are documents issued by others, such as a title search from the land registry or a certificate from a body corporate, which show the buyer the underlying record.

The parts of the form include, according to the government's description:

• the seller and the property: who is selling and exactly what land is being sold
• title, encumbrances and tenancies: who owns it, what burdens it, and who occupies it
• land use, zoning and the environment: how the land may be used and whether it is affected by environmental or other notices
• buildings and structures: matters concerning what has been built on it, including pools and any notices about building work.

A law firm's summary of the form published by Allens when the scheme began adds detail on the second and third parts: the statement asks about unregistered encumbrances, heritage listings, notices of resumption and rates and charges, as well as zoning and environmental matters. Each of those answers has to come from somewhere, and the certificates are the somewhere.

The title search and the survey plan

Every sale needs these two, whatever the property. They come from the Queensland land registry, operated by Titles Queensland.

A title search is the current record of the lot. It shows the registered owners, a description of the land by lot and plan number, and the interests registered against it: a mortgage, an easement that lets a neighbour or a utility cross the land, a covenant that restricts what may be built, a lease. For a seller, the search does two things. It proves to the buyer that the person selling is the registered owner, and it lists the registered encumbrances the seller is asked about in the second part of the form.

The survey plan is the registered drawing of the lot: its boundaries, dimensions and area, and where any easement runs. It lets a buyer see what is being bought on paper before comparing it with the fence line on the ground.

The names on the title search should match the names of the sellers on the form and, later, on the contract. Where they do not, because of a marriage, a death, a company restructure or a spelling error at an earlier transfer, the mismatch is better found at this stage than by a buyer's lawyer. The search also has to be current. A search from the purchase years ago will not show a mortgage taken out since, and the statement must reflect the title as it is when the buyer receives it.

Titles Queensland charges a fee for each search and plan, and its fee schedule is updated on 1 July each year.

Notices that affect the property

The next group of prescribed certificates is not one document but a category. The government's list names notices required under four pieces of legislation: the Environmental Protection Act 1994, the Queensland Building and Construction Commission Act 1991, the Building Act and the Planning Act 2016.

In plain terms these are the official notices that tell an owner something is wrong, restricted or required. On the environmental side, the question is whether the land is recorded on the State's environmental management or contaminated land registers, which list sites with a history of certain uses or known contamination. On the building side, a notice might require work to be done on a structure, and the form also asks about building work carried out under an owner-builder permit: a summary of the scheme by the law firm HopgoodGanim lists owner-builder work from the preceding six years among the matters to be disclosed. On the planning side, the concern is an unsatisfied enforcement notice from the council about how the land is being used or what has been built.

The same summary lists two further items a seller needs to check: whether the land is affected by a notice of intended resumption, where a government body has signalled it will acquire part of it, and whether a transport infrastructure proposal affects it.

For most suburban homes the answer to all of these is no, and the task is to confirm it by search and to keep the search result. For the minority of properties where a notice does exist, a copy of the notice is the prescribed certificate, and it goes in the bundle. A notice an owner had forgotten, about an unapproved deck or a retaining wall, is exactly the kind of document that a careful preparation turns up.

Zoning, rates and water

Two items in the statement are answered from documents most owners already have or can obtain from their council.

Zoning is the first. The third part of the form asks how the land is zoned under the local planning scheme, which tells a buyer what it may be used for. The council's planning scheme and its online property enquiry tools are the source. The statement records the zoning; it is not a guarantee that any particular future use will be approved.

Rates and water are the second. The HopgoodGanim summary lists recent rates and water assessments among the information to be provided, and the Allens analysis includes rates and charges among the matters the statement covers. A current rates notice and a recent water account show the buyer what the property costs to hold.

One further certificate on the government's list puzzles sellers who have never had a dispute with a neighbour: a tree application or order under the neighbourhood disputes legislation.

It applies only where there has been a formal proceeding about a tree on the land, either an application to the tribunal that has not yet been decided or an order that has been made. Such an order can require an owner to prune, maintain or remove a tree, and it concerns the land, so a buyer inherits the position. Where an application or order exists, a copy is a prescribed certificate. Where none exists, the seller says so in the statement, and nothing is attached.

The pool safety certificate

If the property has a swimming pool or spa, the pool safety certificate joins the bundle where one is held. The Queensland Building and Construction Commission regulates pool safety, and its rules on sale run alongside the disclosure scheme.

A certificate is issued by a licensed pool safety inspector after an inspection of the barrier. For a pool that is not shared, it is valid for two years. For a shared pool, such as one serving a unit complex, it is valid for one year, and obtaining it is the responsibility of the pool's owner, usually the body corporate; the seller of a unit obtains a copy.

A seller is not obliged to have a certificate in order to sell. Where there is none, the QBCC requires a Form 36, a notice of no pool safety certificate, to be given to the buyer before settlement and lodged with the Commission; at an auction it is given to prospective buyers before a contract is signed. The buyer of a home with a non-shared pool then has 90 days from settlement to obtain a certificate.

A seller who intends to obtain a certificate should allow time. If the inspector finds the barrier does not comply, a nonconformity notice is issued and the owner has three months to fix it and ask for a reinspection, so an inspection booked in the week before a campaign leaves no room for repairs.

Units and townhouses: the body corporate documents

A lot in a community titles scheme, which covers most units and townhouses in Queensland, needs two more documents than a house does.

The community management statement is the scheme's founding document. It is registered with the title to the scheme and sets out the lots, their entitlements, which determine each owner's share of levies and voting power, and the by-laws that govern everything from pets to parking. A buyer of a unit is buying into those rules, and the scheme requires the seller to hand them over.

The body corporate certificate is the financial and administrative snapshot. It is issued by the body corporate for the scheme and tells the buyer what the levies on the lot are, what the body corporate holds in its funds, and other matters about the scheme's affairs. HopgoodGanim's summary identifies it as Form 33. For lots in older developments created under the building units and group titles legislation, the government's list provides for a body corporate certificate of the corresponding kind.

This is the part of the bundle a seller controls least. The certificate has to be requested from the body corporate or its manager and paid for, and its figures move: a levy falls due, a special levy is passed at a general meeting, the sinking fund balance changes. The Real Estate Institute of Queensland flagged the disclosure of community management statements as one of its concerns when the scheme began. In practice, a unit seller's first step is a request to the body corporate manager, made early.

What the statement does not cover

Knowing where the form stops saves a seller from over-promising and a buyer from over-relying. The Queensland Government's guidance lists three things a seller does not have to disclose under the scheme: the structural soundness of the building, the property's flooding history, and previous building or development approvals.

That does not make those subjects unimportant. It means the disclosure statement is a statement about title, notices and records, not a warranty about the condition of the house. The Real Estate Institute of Queensland's chief executive, Antonia Mercorella, made the point when the scheme was introduced: "the 'buyer beware' principle still applies." A buyer still commissions a building and pest inspection and makes flood enquiries, and a seller is not completing those for them by signing Form 2.

Other rules continue alongside. A seller must still not mislead a buyer about the property, smoke alarms must still meet the standard the Queensland Fire Department sets for homes being sold, and the pool rules apply in their own right. Disclosure adds to those duties. It does not replace them.

Giving the documents to the buyer

A complete bundle achieves nothing until it reaches the buyer, at the right time, in a way the seller can prove.

The timing is fixed: before the buyer signs the contract. Where there is more than one buyer, Allens' analysis of the Act notes that the documents must be given before the first of them signs. An agent who presents a contract for signature and promises the statement tomorrow has put the seller in breach.

The method is flexible. The government's guidance lists delivery in person, by post, or by email or other electronic communication. What it adds is the burden: the seller must be able to prove the buyer was given the statement. In practice that means a dated email with the documents attached, an electronic signing platform that records receipt, or a signed acknowledgment.

The content must be right at that moment. Allens puts the test as true and correct at the time the statement is given. A statement prepared in May for a home that goes under contract in August has to be read again in August: a new levy, a new notice from the council, a lapsed pool certificate or a refinanced mortgage would each make it out of date.

Auctions and the exemptions

An auction has no single buyer to hand documents to before the day, so the scheme treats it differently. The Queensland Government's guidance says different rules apply, but the statement and the prescribed certificates must still be given or made available to the buyer before the fall of the hammer. The REIQ described the auction requirements as complex when the scheme began, and a seller going to auction should expect the agent and the lawyer to settle the mechanics well ahead of the day.

A small number of sales fall outside the scheme altogether. The government's guidance lists them: where the buyer is the State, a government body, a constructing authority or a listed corporation; where the buyer and seller are related parties; where the price is more than $10 million and the buyer waives disclosure; and where a local council is selling to recover unpaid rates. The Allens analysis adds off-the-plan sales, which have their own disclosure regime, and sales between neighbours to realign a boundary. A parent selling to an adult child is the exemption most ordinary sellers are likely to meet, and it should be confirmed with a lawyer before it is relied on.

If the bundle is wrong or incomplete

The scheme gives the form its force through a single consequence. If the seller does not give the disclosure documents at all, or gives inaccurate or incomplete information, the buyer may have a right to terminate the contract at any time up to settlement, the Queensland Government's guidance says. It adds four words that matter: even if it was unintentional.

There are limits on the buyer's side. The buyer has to show that the matter was material, that the buyer was not aware of the true position, and that the buyer would not have signed with that knowledge. A typing error in a lot number that misleads nobody is not grounds to walk away. An easement for a sewer main under the proposed pool site, left off the statement, may well be.

Where a buyer does terminate, the money paid is returned. Allens notes one point in a seller's favour: where the inaccuracy lies in a certificate issued by a third party, termination and refund are the buyer's only remedies under the scheme.

Time, cost and the order of work

The scheme has turned the weeks before a listing into working time. The REIQ told sellers in July 2025 to budget for both preparation costs and timing, and noted that Queensland has no government-funded tool that assembles all the searches in one place. Sellers either order each search themselves, ask a solicitor or conveyancer to do it, or use one of the commercial services that package the searches for a fee.

Since 1 July 2026 there has been one more task at the front of a sale. Agents must now verify a seller's identity under federal anti-money laundering law before acting, so the identity documents and the title search are worth assembling together: the names on one should match the names on the other.

A workable order follows from which documents take longest and which change fastest. The body corporate certificate and any pool inspection depend on other people and come first. The title search is quick to obtain and is best ordered close to the campaign, so it is current. The form itself is completed last, from the documents, and read once more on the day it goes to a buyer.

The form takes an afternoon. The documents behind it take weeks, and they have to be right on the day a buyer receives them.

Kooky, from Shaka

Kooky edits Queensland Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for Queensland property professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.

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