Vehicle sales contracts

Contracts for the sale of motor vehicles by licensed dealers (other than sales to other dealers or sales by auction) are regulated under the Motor Vehicle Dealers Act.

These regulated contracts must be in writing and must contain certain prescribed terms and conditions.

The vehicle sale prescribed terms and conditions (below) explain the rights and responsibilities of both the purchaser and the dealer under the contract and importantly determine how contractual matters are dealt with. The terms and conditions include:

Vehicle registers

A dealer must maintain a register of the vehicles bought and sold. A separate register must be held at each authorised premises.

Dealers may use either paper bound or electronic dealer registers.

A register must be available for inspection by authorised inspectors from the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety or by police officers at all times.

Choosing a property manager

Remember, you don’t have to use an agent for everything. Some decide to pay a ‘letting fee’ and only use their agent to find a tenant and deal with the bond, while others use their agent to manage their property and/or collect the rent. No matter what you decide, ensure their experience matches your needs.

If you do decide to use an agent to manage the property, you can expect some or all of the following services (depending on the agreement you sign with them):

Fidelity guarantee account

The Fidelity Guarantee Account helps provide financial reimbursement to people who suffer loss of trust money or trust property through the criminal or fraudulent actions of a licensed real estate or business agent, real estate settlement or business settlement agent or their employees in the course of a real estate settlement or business broking transaction.

The account is financed through contributions from agents and sales representatives, interest on agents' trust accounts and interest generated by the account.  

Settlement agents

Settlement agents facilitate the legal transfer of property ownership from the seller to the buyer. 

A settlement agent:

  • manages the financial transactions,
  • prepares legal documents,
  • ensures all conditions of the sale contract are met.

There are two ways you can work as a settlement agent in Western Australia, you can:

  1. hold a Consumer Protection settlement agent licence
  2. be a certified legal practitioner (conveyancer) 

Individual licences

To apply for a licence, you must:

Bonds and start up fees

Park operators can only ask for money relating to rent and a bond at the start of a tenancy. There are no other upfront fees, apart from a refundable option fee, that can be charged prior to the tenancy.

Rent

In the first two weeks of a tenancy, a park operator can collect up to two weeks' rent in advance. 

Paid through direct deposit

Rent payments deposited directly into a financial institution do not need a receipt from the park operator. 

Managing a property yourself

Once you have decided to rent out a property, one of the first decisions you will need to make is whether to do all the property management yourself or employ a real estate agent to do it for you.

It needn't be all or nothing. You may employ an agent just to find your tenants and handle the bond details and then manage the property yourself; or you may just want an agent to collect the rent but do everything else yourself.

Tenant ending a tenancy

The process to end a tenancy depends on whether it’s a fixed-term or periodic tenancy and the reason for ending it.

Counting days page includes notice periods and helpful flow charts showing how to give notices. A tenant should give the landlord as much notice as possible to allow time to find a new tenant.

The agreement ends when the tenant has:

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