Offer to Purchase Preparation Checklist

Identity, authority, and property

• Confirm the legal names and capacity of every buyer and seller.
• Confirm the property description, title information, address, and every included or excluded area.
• Ask who is authorized to sign where a trust, company, estate, marriage regime, or representative is involved.
• Resolve blank spaces, handwritten changes, annexures, and references to documents you have not received.

Price, deposit, finance, and other conditions

• Write down the price, deposit amount, payment destination, due dates, and treatment of interest.
• If finance is required, ask what approval must be obtained, by when, for what amount, and on what acceptable terms.
• If the purchase depends on selling another property, ask how that condition works, what evidence is required, and whether a continued-marketing clause applies.
• If an inspection or specialist report matters, ask how the condition identifies the inspection, deadline, acceptable outcome, and next step.
• Understand what happens if a condition is not met, waived, extended, or recorded incorrectly.

Condition, disclosures, and included items

• List known defects and compare verbal statements with the written disclosure and contract.
• Identify fixtures, appliances, solar equipment, batteries, tanks, security systems, and other disputed items explicitly.
• Request plans, approvals, certificates, warranties, repair records, and specialist reports relevant to your concerns.
• Ask an adviser to explain defect provisions, voetstoots wording, disclosure duties, and remedies in the specific transaction.

Dates, occupation, risk, and costs

• Separate signature, acceptance, condition, transfer, occupation, and possession dates.
• Confirm occupational rent, utilities, maintenance, insurance, keys, and responsibility for damage during any early or delayed occupation.
• Obtain current estimates for transfer, bond, tax, levy, clearance, moving, and professional costs from the responsible source.
• Ask when risk passes and what insurance each party should maintain.

Questions to take to a qualified adviser

1. When and how does this offer become binding, and how long is it open for acceptance?
2. Which clauses are suspensive conditions, which are ordinary obligations, and who controls each deadline?
3. What happens if finance, inspection, or sale conditions fail or are only partly satisfied?
4. Does any clause allow continued marketing, a competing offer, cancellation, or acceleration of a deadline?
5. Are all representations, defects, included items, and promised repairs recorded in enforceable language?
6. What costs and risks arise before transfer, on occupation, and if either party defaults?
7. Which plans, certificates, scheme documents, title restrictions, or municipal facts should be checked before signature?
8. What should be changed or clarified before I sign this specific version?