A residential property real estate transaction can seem to encompass thousands of details, and it is imperative that you educate yourself as much as possible to the aspects of these convoluted procedures. The issues pertaining to real estate law are specifically intricate and can range from fairly common sense topics all the way to minute details that if handled improperly could explode into enormous problems.
Since the process is so complex, there is no expectation that you will be able to navigate these choppy legal waters without proper, experienced and reputable legal counsel. However, even the best lawyers are still human, and even with the best intentions, legal mistakes can occur. Although stricter regulation of the profession has considerably lowered the instances of legal mistakes crippling a real estate transaction, the point is that mistakes still do happen, and when they do they can be very difficult to deal with.
Mistakes Can Be Minor Or Devastating
Legal mistakes can be relatively minor, such as the improper wording of a phrase, orbe major such as negligence to protect you from fraud, embezzlement or other forms of damaging behaviour on the part of the buyer.
One of the primary causes of legal errors can be the home inspection clause and the survey clause. If the wording of these clauses is not specified very clearly, a buyer who has changed their mind can back out of an otherwise satisfactory offer. In the case of the home inspection clause, the findings of the inspection which may indicate only a minor flaw that can be remedied with a few hundred dollars can be cause for walking away; and in the case of the survey clause the buyer can demand that the seller spend a thousand dollars or more on completing a totally new survey of the property.
Educate Yourself & Research Your Lawyer
The best way to protect yourself against legal mistakes is to be educated as to what it is the lawyer is actually doing, and to carefully read and understand every word of every document prior to placing your signature on it. Some sellers have found that lawyers practicing with larger, more established, reputable law firms tend to commit fewer mistakes and the ones that do occur are more easily remedied as the lawyer has a greater level of resources to call upon to assist.
There is no substitute to the proper vetting and reference checking of any lawyer prior to establishing a business relationship. If your lawyer has arrived with sterling references vouching to their impeccable legal skills, you can rest assured that your chances of suffering through legal mistakes may not have entirely disappeared, but are considerably diminished.