About Lawyers Real Estate

 

	Who we are
	What we do
	Where We're Going

 

 

 

Who we are

 

Lawyers Real Estate Pty Ltd

Lawyers Real Estate Pty Ltd (ACN 111 611 539) is a proprietary company, incorporated under the Corporations Act, as required pursuant to the Legal Practice Act.

 

 

Peter Mericka B.A., LL.B (Legal Practitioner Director)

My name is Peter Mericka, and I describe myself as a "real estate lawyer". This is because the Estate Agents Act 1980 states that any person who negotiates the sale or purchase of real estate on behalf of another person falls within the definition of an "estate agent".

 

In the State of Victoria lawyers are variously described as "legal practitioners", "lawyers", "barristers and solicitors", or simply "solicitors". All of these terms describe a person who advises and assists clients in matters of law.

I like the term "real estate lawyer", because this term describes a professional legal practitioner who has the qualifications, knowledge and experience to provide clients with all of the services required to see them safely through the sale of real estate, from the beginning to the very end. It also enables me to differentiate myself from the estate agents.

I developed the concept of the "real estate lawyer" after leaving the Victoria Police Force to become a lawyer.

My unique background gives me an insight that no-one else in the industry has:

	As a detective with the Victoria Police Force, I was taught how to identify fraudulent behaviour and how to investigate complaints of fraud.
	As a member of the Victoria Police Internal Investigations Department (now known as the Ethical Standards Department), I was responsible for examining the behaviour of professionals whose conduct was likely to affect the reputation of the Victoria Police Force.
	As a part-time lecturer in Law and Ethics with Victoria University, I developed a keen interest in the ethics of professionals in their dealings with lay-people.
	As a conveyancing lawyer dealing with ordinary people in the buying and selling of real estate, I gained an intimate knowledge of the real estate industry and the behaviours of those who cause loss and disappointment for consumers on a regular basis.

These experiences have also provided me with the guidance and motivation to bring about change.

The desire to change the real estate industry has driven my development of the concept of the real estate lawyer.

Our tag line, "the new direction in real estate" means exactly that. Lawyers Real Estate is providing a completely new direction in real estate – one in which the consumer is in control.

I take great pride in what our firm has achieved. I thank those consumers who have put their faith in us, and who have now become our word-of-mouth ambassadors. I also thank those industry professionals who continue to support us and what we are trying to achieve.

Finally, I invite all consumers, professionals, and real estate industry commentators to examine what we do and how we do it.

We welcome new clients. We also welcome feedback and suggestions on development of "the new direction in real estate".

 

What we do

Our real estate service

We have become known for our real estate sales service. We have demonstrated that consumers are best served by a professional who has the qualifications and expertise to represent them from the time they decide to put their property on the market, all the way through the sale and negotiation stages, the conveyancing process, to settlement and beyond.

We have also demonstrated that fee-for-service is the fair alternative to commission as a basis for remuneration in the sale of real estate.

Our conveyancing service

Our real estate sales service grew from our conveyancing service Lawyers Conveyancing. We realised that a premium conveyancing service is at the core of any real estate sale or purchase, and simply added a marketing and sales component to our conveyancing service. Visit the Lawyers Conveyancing website for more information.

Our real estate documents service

Our real estate documents website RealEstateDocuments.com.au has been designed to assist consumers to find the right document or information to suit their requirements, without the cost or inconvenience of having to request it through their lawyer or conveyancer.

As consumers and industry professionals know, the forms and information documents needed by consumers who are buying or selling real estate are many and varied, and must be sourced from a number of different govenment departments, both State and Federal. While it is not the role of lawyers or conveyancers to source, deliver and explain each of the myriad documents available, it is understandable that clients and consumers become frustrated when told that they must exercise self-help in finding and using the correct forms.

Similarly, clients and consumers often ask questions which may require long explanations and considerable risk for the legal professional who is asked to respond. Such questions are not asked frequently enough to warrant being included in standard advice, yet they come up often enough to require attention.

To make the task of finding and using the right form or information easier, we have built the RealEstateDocuments.com.au website as a resource for consumers and industry professionals alike. Consumers can find the documents and articles they need quickly and easily, and industry professionals have a site to which they can direct clients who need forms or information for a particular aspect of their conveyancing transaction.

Our legal service

Lawyers Real Estate Pty Ltd is a law firm. Our constitution states, "The sole object of the Company is to engage in legal practice".

What does this mean in practical terms? It means that we provide genuine consumer protection services for our clients. By providing a full agency service we are able to represent consumers in their dealings with vendors, purchasers, buyer's agents, conveyancers, other lawyers, mortgagees, businesses or government departments.

Lawyers Real Estate Pty Ltd has also achieved accreditation as a Quality Endorsed Legal Practice through the LAW 9000 Legal Best Practice Certification Program.

 

Our clients

If you ask us who our clients are, our response is that we act for any consumer who requires legal representation, but in particular we assist people who own, or intend to own, real estate.

The ownership of real estate brings a consumer into contact with almost every area of law. A law firm that services the community through real estate is very well placed to assist with almost every legal issue a consumer is likely to face.

 

Where we're going

 

The one-stop-shop

The tag line to our logo states that we are "the new direction in real estate". This new direction takes consumers to a one-stop-shop that provides them with access to everything related to real estate, including:

	Real estate agency services
	Real estate legal services (legal advice and preparation of legal documents)
	Real estate conveyancing services (purchases and sales)

Only law firms can offer the one-stop-shop concept to consumers. This is because other industry players (estate agents and conveyancers) are not qualified to handle ALL aspects of the real estate sale process. An estate agent may be licensed to advertise and take calls on behalf of vendors, but cannot attend to any of the legal or conveyancing work associated with the sale. Similarly, a conveyancer can deal with the conveyancing process, but cannot attend to any legal work beyond that associated with the conveyancing transaction. And neither the estate agent nor the conveyancer can act as both estate agent and conveyancer in the one transaction.

The lawyer is qualified to attend to ALL of the functions of the estate agent, ALL of the functions of the conveyancer, and to perform all of the other legal work associated with the real estate transaction. In addition to this, the lawyer provides full agency services throughout the real estate transaction and beyond. The lawyer is also able to consider the impact a real estate transaction may have on other areas of law, and not just those associated with the immediate transaction.

Understandably, the old and out-dated real estate industry is quite concerned about the move to "the new direction in real estate".

 

First contact for consumers

We expect that consumers will come to regard Lawyers Real Estate as the first contact for anything related to real estate.

We have built a strong client base through word-of-mouth referrals, and while many of our clients made initial contact with us for assistance with real estate related matters, they have also sought our assistance with a wide variety of legal matters.

 

The rise of the real estate lawyer

As more lawyers become aware of the benefits of providing a total real estate service, the concept of the real estate real estate lawyer will develop. We look forward to assisting and working with those lawyers and industry regulators who would like to see a dynamic real estate industry; one based on true competition, ethical service, fair remuneration, and consumer protection.

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Disclaimer regarding the limited use of information provided on this website, and our Conveyancing Section for conveyancing consumer information.