1) Purchaser always appoint a lawyer to act on his behalf. No two ways about it. There's no such thing as "agent's lawyer" in SPA transactions. It's either vendor's lawyer or purchaser's lawyer. There's also no lawyer who sits in the middle and "ensures that the SPA shall be impartial". That is all hogwash. Ultimately, the SPA will have terms which side one party, whether a bit or a lot. It depends on how it is drafted and how it is ultimately approved and finalised.

2) Am sure that at the end of the day, you would be paying full fees for this lawyer. Vendor would not need to pay full fees and he needs to pay minimal fees only as the lawyer is supposed to be acting for you [read: protect your best interests]. So if the agent pushes this lawyer to you and at the same time says that the lawyer will prepare an impartial SPA, then it's time to get an independent lawyer of your own choice - ask friends and family for recommendations.

3) Yes it is a conflict of interest for a lawyer to purportedly act for two parties in the SPA. He can't act for both parties. He can act for purchaser and be authorised by the vendor to attend to the discharge of charge/deed of RnR and filing of CKHT forms [or to apply for consent, if applicable]. That's all. At the end of the day, your lawyer whom you are paying full scaled fees has to act for you.

4) If your SPA lawyer is on the bank's panel, you can insist that he does the loan as well, in order to save time and costs (disbursements can be reduced). Who pays the fees? Here's the reality in M'sia - the lawyer acts on behalf of the bank, but you pay the fees.

To calculate legal fees - use the calculator in the first page. Fees are based on the purchase price or loan sum (when it comes to your loan documentation)

Date of completion of SPA would mean the date the vendor's lawyers receive the cheque for payment of the balance purchase price. Normally, within 3 working days from that date, vacant possession has to be surrendered to you. However, for the purpose of calculation - the date of receipt of the cheque by the vendor's lawyers would be deemed as the cut-off date. As such, from that date, you are considered the owner of the property. As such, you start to pay for all outgoings from that day onwards.

You can always do your own calculation, just to double check. No issues with that. Just to be safe.

If you just executed it, it must be sent to the bank to be executed by the bank's attorney. So perhaps they would spot the mistake and send it back for the lawyer to amend first before they would execute it.

The delay would not be long - provided your lawyer quickly collects back the doc, make the amendments and send it back to the bank.

It depends on the bank as well - some banks are more flexible and can execute it first subject to the lawyer's undertaking to do the amendment upon collecting the docs. Some insist on seeing the amendment. It also depends on whether there are other mistakes. If there are a lot more, then the docs would be returned for amendments to be made, before the bank would execute it.

You don't need to pay anything at all. I don't think you should alert your loan officer at this stage. Unless there is a delay on the part of the lawyer to attend to the amendments.

What do you mean by hidden costs?

If you're not taking a loan to purchase your new house you need not pay for valuation report and other bank charges.

You can't share the same solicitor. I've explained this in detail in an early post. Do look it up.

As purchaser, don't forget that you have to pay pro-rated quit rent ,assessment, and other outgoings. You've pretty much covered all the other costs.

One cannot judge legal fees by the price of the property. One must also look at number of purchasers (more costs for CKHT), whether there is individual title or otherwise, whether the fees are for both SPA and loan doc, etc.

Get a few quotations and compare. Want to know whether it is justified? Ask the lawyer to justify it for you. Simple. If he refuses, go to another lawyer.

It's nothing to do with law. It's about ethics.

Challenge it? And achieve what? You want to do the loan documentation all by yourself?

There was a time when banks used to absorb legal fees. Not anymore.

But the bank dictate the system. Unless the customers all protest and boycott the banks en bloc, I can't see how the system will change.

The LOI is to confirm and secure the deal and terms pending finalising a formal SPA between the parties.

If the purchaser paid an earnest deposit - doesn't matter how much, even RM1 is sufficient - then the vendor is bound to abide by the terms of the LOI. If the vendor fails to proceed, the purchaser can sue to compel the vendor to sell it upon the terms of the LOI.

If nothing of value is given to the vendor, the vendor has no obligation to sell it at the agreed price upon the agreed terms.

Are you taking about individual title for apartments?

Master title is the main title whereupon the whole block is constructed upon. Once the apartment is complete, the developer can apply for subdivision into strata title, i.e. individual title.

In the SPA, the developer will agree to execute a memorandum of transfer (MOT) to transfer the strata title to you, when the said strata title is ready. So when the time comes, the developer will notify you that you have to appoint a lawyer to prepare the necessary docs, espec the MOT, to transfer it to your name. You have to bear the legal fees for it.

This post has been edited by dariofoo: Jan 15 2012, 10:58 PM

Same process. Your lawyer would've prepared the MOT for you to execute when you attended to execute the SPA.

Engage a lawyer and send a letter of demand. If he still fails to comply, you have to instruct your lawyer to file a civil suit in Court.

A photocopy of it ought to be sent to you. Call up the lawyer and request for it.

Hmmm. Sounds like negligence on the part of the lawyer. Could that be the reason why they are ignoring you? Don't waste time with emails and calls.

Write an official letter and get it sent by hand - get it acknowledged. In your letter, you ought to state the chronology of events, proof of the outstanding amount, proof of their letter confirming that all dues have been settled, and demand for a formal explanation as to how the situation could have occurred.

Give them 7 days to reply in writing, and state that failing which you will file a formal complaint with the Advocate & Solicitor Disciplinary Board. Then they ought to reply to you. Don't need to cc it to any other party. If they still fail to comply then you need to file a formal complaint. The link is at the first page of this thread.

Duration of time really depends on the efficiency of your lawyer and that of the Court. It also depends if the other side engages a lawyer, or opts to settle the case and agree to sell the house to you, or pay you a certain sum in compensation which you are happy with. That would be the "best case scenario".

Another factor would be if they appeal. If they appeal, they can request for judgment to be stayed (postponed) until the hearing of the appeal. From High Court they can appeal to Court of Appeal. From the COA, if they lose, they can file an application for leave to appeal to the Federal Court. As property is involved, there is a possibility that a stay might be granted until the disposal of the appeal and the application for leave (if they proceed further). That would be the "worst case scenario".

Process is really not complex as the facts seem straightforward. Filing would be by way of writ of summons, followed by an application for an order for specific performance under Order 81, Rule 1(a), Rules of the High Court. Provided that there are no issues to be determined and if you can prove the fact that terms were agreed but the vendor blatantly refused to execute the SPA, then you have a reasonably good chance of success.

Legal fees is negotiable with the lawyer. There's no barometer or measure to calculate it.

Good luck

Only you can answer that question. How much you want that property plus whether you can handle the effect of an ongoing litigation. Weigh the pros and cons first before proceeding.



In the LOI a timeframe ought to be given to the purchaser to prepare and finalise a draft SPA. That is a normal term in a LOI. So, your lawyer needs to prepare the draft and send it over to him for his approval. His refusal to proceed would effectively be a breach of the LOI.

This is procedural and depends on bank to bank. The best is to obtain advice from a banker from the bank in which you're making the new loan applic.


Discharge of charge/Deed of RnR costs RM300. If additional title, add RM100/title. Disbursements ought not cost more than RM250. Procedure would take, let's say 1 month at the soonest. Hopefully the bank didn't misplace or lost the original documents or else it would add to the time to complete it. More often than not, all would be ok and it'll be done within 4-6 weeks.

Ask for the company to provide you with a copy of the SPA in which they purchased the property. The actual purchaser/landlord ought to be stated there. No need to do land search.

Your lawyer is absolutely right. Any delay by the vendor will result in the completion date to be extended in favour of you as the purchaser. The common understanding in SPAs is that:

Vendors want their money fast and conclude the deal AND Purchaser has the duty to make payment of the balance purchase price on/before the completion date. As such, any delay by purchaser and he has to pay late penalty interest to the vendor. Any delay by the vendor, and the purchaser gets more time. Vendor is at a loss as the market price of the property may go up. Factor in inflation as well and the depreciation of money - both factors whereof are detrimental to the vendor.

If upon completion of the SPA, the vendor fails to deliver vacant possession to you - then he has to pay late penalty interest to you. That is how it works.

So now, either you back out of the transaction or you be patient and agree to the clause to wait until April for redemption of the vendor's loan.

Usually, upon redemption, it takes 3-4 weeks to complete the SPA, so you're just looking at another few more weeks of delay.

If you execute the SPA in 2 weeks' time (bearing in mind the holidays and a few exchanges of drafts) - you're looking at the date of the SPA to be around the first week of March. End of April would be around 7-8 weeks from the time the SPA runs. If all goes well with redemption, you're looking at another 3-4 weeks to complete it. The standard completion date for SPA is 3 months. So, you'd still be within time. If there is a bit of delay, it'll be for another few weeks only.

Weigh the pros and cons first before deciding. How much do you want this property? Is the deal and price good that you won't be able to find another?
If you think you can't wait for it, then back out now. Good luck.

Whether he has the right or otherwise will be stated in the letter of offer to purchase. So do take a look at it and see what it stipulates.

Another way is to proceed to draft the SPA and send out a draft to the vendor (or the vendor's lawyer). If parties fail to agree on a finalised SPA, then the transaction is deemed to be aborted. Look at the letter of offer again to see what it states in a situation of abortion of the transaction. If he has to refund you, then demand for it. If it is forfeited, then you can't do anything as you had agreed to such term and had executed the letter of offer containing same.

10% is payable on the date of execution of the SPA. You hand it over to your lawyer on that day. Your lawyer would then send over the SPAs and other docs to the vendor to be executed by the vendor, together with the cheque for 10%

Good luck with your matter. Come back for further enquiries.