A Section 32, or vendor statement, is the document a Victorian vendor must give a buyer before the buyer signs the contract of sale, in which the vendor discloses what they know about the property, from the title and mortgages to zoning, outgoings and building permits. It takes its name from section 32 of the Sale of Land Act 1962, and it is not a building report and not the contract itself: it travels with the contract and is meant to be read before you sign.
Most people meet it on a Thursday night: the agent emails two attachments, contract and Section 32, and the auction is on Saturday. You are now reading property law in bed, on your phone, at eleven at night.
When does the vendor have to give you the Section 32, and who prepares it?
Before you sign a contract in Victoria the vendor must give you a signed Section 32 statement. The vendor may sign it electronically. The vendor’s conveyancer or solicitor prepares it from title searches and certificates, and the agent gives it to you with the contract. If you are buying, both documents are reviewed before you sign, which is the heart of our conveyancing for buyers in Victoria.
If you are selling, this is why your agent keeps saying nothing can be signed until the Section 32 is ready. The Section 32 has to exist before a buyer can sign, so the paperwork starts before the campaign does. The first job of selling a house turns out to be paperwork. Our conveyancing for sellers prepares the statement and every attachment. If you are selling a home or vacant residential land, the Consumer Affairs Victoria due diligence checklist also has to be available to buyers from the moment the property goes on the market. Your agent usually handles it.
From 1 June 2027 the Section 32 will have to be available within 14 days of a private sale being advertised, and at least 14 days before an auction or fixed-date sale; where the property is not advertised, or sells within 14 days of being advertised, it must be available before the buyer signs. Until then, the rule is simply before the buyer signs.
What is in a Section 32?
The Sale of Land Act lists what a vendor has to disclose. The line that matters is usually around page forty, between a water certificate and a planning map, which is why most people skim it and very few read it.
| What is listed | What it includes | What it can mean for you |
|---|---|---|
| Title search and plan | Register Search Statement and plan, and proof of the right to sell | Does the plan match the property |
| Mortgages, caveats and charges | Everything registered against the title | Someone else’s claim on the land; ask why |
| Easements, covenants and restrictions | And whether the property complies with them | A covenant can rule out the second storey |
| Planning | Zoning, overlays, planning scheme, council, bushfire prone status | Overlays shape what you can build or change |
| Rates and outgoings | Council, water, land tax where it applies, owners corporation fees | The real cost of owning it |
| Building permits | Any in the last seven years, plus owner-builder insurance | Recent works, and whether they were permitted |
| Services | Electricity, gas, water, sewerage or telephone not connected | A connection cost you had not budgeted for |
| Owners corporation certificate | A current certificate, or the prescribed information in the statement, for any lot in an owners corporation (inactive ones excepted) | Fees, insurance, rules and any special levy |
| Notices and orders | From any authority, including compulsory acquisition | Something an authority wants done with the land |
| Growth areas infrastructure contribution | Whether GAIC applies and what has been paid or deferred | Growth-area land only; check who pays |
Consumer Affairs Victoria’s guide to conveyancing and contracts for sellers covers the vendor’s side, and the current Sale of Land Act 1962 is on the legislation register.
What is not in a Section 32?
It is not a building report, it does not describe the condition of the property, and it does not have to tell you about a planning application next door. Nor does it certify that the buildings comply with the building regulations, although the notices and orders in it can point to problems, and a vendor must not knowingly conceal a material fact. It will tell you the gas is not connected. It will not tell you the hot water system is older than the vendor’s kids.
Read it with the contract, not instead of an inspection.
So the building and pest inspection is yours to organise, before you sign: three clear business days is not much room afterwards, and at auction there is none.
What does the buyer’s conveyancer actually check?
All of it, including the water certificate nobody has ever read for pleasure.
- Every required item present and current
- Title and plan match the property
- Covenants and overlays against your plans
- Outgoings and the settlement adjustments
- Special conditions in the contract
The owners corporation certificate has to be current when the Section 32 is given, and a special levy voted after the certificate date becomes the buyer’s surprise. Land tax is disclosed in the Section 32, but it is the vendor’s bill: since 1 January 2024 a vendor cannot pass land tax on to the buyer at settlement on a sale under the prescribed price threshold, which covers almost every home, and a contract term that tries is ineffective.
All of this happens before you sign: the Section 32 comes with the contract, cooling off is three clear business days, and at auction there is none. For a private sale, engage a conveyancer as soon as you have a property in mind so the Section 32 can be reviewed while you negotiate; for an auction, before you bid, ideally the week the property is listed.
What happens if the Section 32 is wrong or missing?
If the vendor leaves out something the Act requires, or gets it wrong, you may be able to rescind the contract at any time before you accept title and take possession, which in practice means before settlement. That right has limits: a court can refuse it where the vendor acted honestly and reasonably and ought fairly to be excused, and you are in substantially as good a position as if the statement had been complete. For the vendor, knowingly or recklessly giving false information, leaving out required information, or handing over an unsigned statement is also an offence.
Rescission is the backstop. The review before you sign is the plan.
Rescinding a contract is a fight, and you would rather not be in it. Find the problem before signing and you negotiate or walk away; find it afterwards and you are arguing about whether a court would excuse the vendor.
How is this different from buying in NSW?
If you learned the process in Sydney, Victoria will feel like someone moved the furniture.
In NSW
The disclosure lives inside the contract. The prescribed documents are attached at the back of the NSW contract for sale, which has to be ready before the property is advertised, and nothing binds until contracts are exchanged. Buy an established home by private treaty and you usually get five business days of cooling off, at a cost of 0.25 per cent of the price. None at auction.
In Victoria
The disclosure is a separate document. The vendor gives you the signed Section 32 with the contract, before you sign, and the contract binds once both parties have signed it. Cooling off on a private sale is three clear business days after you sign, at a cost of $100 or 0.2 per cent of the price, whichever is more. None at auction, and none within three clear business days either side of a publicly advertised auction.
In both states a licensed conveyancer or a solicitor can run your matter from start to finish, and in both, cooling off is for emergencies, not for the reading you skipped; our guide to cooling-off periods has the detail.
What about auctions and off the plan?
A buyer at auction has no cooling off and the contract is signed on the day, so the Section 32 review, the finance approval and the building and pest inspections all have to happen before auction day. A Saturday auction in Melbourne is over before your coffee cools, and the Section 32 you did not read is now attached to a contract you have signed. Melbourne’s auction market has its own page, conveyancing in Melbourne, and the auction mistakes buyers make are worth ten minutes.
Off the plan, the Section 32 still has to be given before you sign, even when the apartment is still a drawing. The deposit is capped at 10 per cent of the price. Sunset clauses and the Victorian duty concession are covered in our guide to buying off the plan.
What does this mean for your purchase or sale?
Read the Section 32 before you sign, not during cooling off. For sellers, the statement comes before the campaign.
- Buying: get the Section 32 and contract as soon as they exist, and have both reviewed before you offer or bid.
- Buying: book your own building and pest inspection.
- Apartment or townhouse: check the date on the owners corporation certificate.
- Selling: start the Section 32 before the photographer, and order the owners corporation certificate early.
- Selling: have the due diligence checklist with the agent from day one.
Titlespace is a conveyancing law firm based in Sydney acting for buyers, sellers and transfers in NSW, VIC, QLD and the ACT. Our Victorian team reviews the Section 32 before you sign, or prepares it before you list. For the rest of the Victorian rules, start with conveyancing in Victoria.
Reviewed by Marc Ryckmans, Legal Practitioner Director, October 2026. Last updated October 2026. This article is general information about the Section 32 vendor statement in Victoria. It is not legal advice about your transaction.
The content of this blog post is intended as general information and should be considered broad guidance only. It does not constitute legal, financial, or tax advice and should not be relied upon as such. Every property transaction is different, and we recommend seeking personalised advice from a qualified professional before making any investment or legal decisions.
Questions buyers and sellers ask about the Section 32
How long is a Section 32 valid for?
The Sale of Land Act does not put an expiry date on a Section 32. What it requires is that the statement is accurate and complete when it is given to the buyer, so a statement prepared months earlier can still be used if nothing in it has changed. The catch is the attachments. The owners corporation certificate has to be current when the Section 32 is given, and council, water and planning certificates describe the position on the day they were issued, so a long campaign usually means refreshing them. If the Section 32 you have been sent is dated well before the contract, ask when the certificates were issued.
Can you sign a contract without a Section 32 in Victoria?
You should not, and the vendor is not allowed to let you. Before you sign a contract in Victoria the vendor must give you a signed Section 32 statement. Consumer Affairs Victoria puts it bluntly: a contract is not binding on a buyer if a Section 32 is not provided or is incomplete or inaccurate. In practice that means you may be able to rescind at any time before you accept title and take possession, which usually means before settlement, unless a court excuses the vendor. Knowingly handing over an incomplete or unsigned statement is also an offence for the vendor. If an agent asks you to sign anything before the 32 exists, the answer is not yet.
Who pays for the Section 32?
The vendor. The Section 32 is the vendor’s statement, prepared by the vendor’s conveyancer or solicitor from title searches and certificates, and the cost of preparing it and of the searches and certificates behind it sits on the vendor’s side of the deal. The buyer pays for their own review of it; at Titlespace that review sits inside the fixed fee quoted for your purchase. Buyers also pay for their own building and pest inspection, because the Section 32 does not include one. The owners corporation certificate fee and the search costs vary by property and council.
What is the difference between a Section 32 and a contract of sale?
The Section 32 is the vendor’s disclosure; the contract of sale is the agreement. The Section 32 tells you what the vendor knows about the property and has to be given to you before you sign. The contract sets the price, the deposit, the settlement date and the special conditions, and it binds both parties once both have signed it. Victoria has no prescribed form of contract; most sales use the standard Law Institute of Victoria and REIV contract with the vendor’s special conditions added. The two arrive together and are reviewed together, because a problem can sit in either one.
Can I pull out after signing if the Section 32 is wrong?
Possibly, and it is one situation where the usual cooling-off limits do not decide the answer. If the vendor left out something the Act requires, or got it wrong, you may be able to rescind the contract at any time before you accept title and take possession, which usually means before settlement, and that applies whether you bought by private sale or at auction. The right has limits: a court can refuse it where the vendor acted honestly and reasonably and ought fairly to be excused, and you are in substantially as good a position as if the statement had been complete. A missing certificate that would have changed nothing is a weaker case than an undisclosed covenant that stops your renovation. Get advice before you send any notice, because a rescission that turns out to be unjustified can put you in breach of the contract instead.
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