Section 32: the document every buyer should read twice.

Every property transaction in Victoria turns on a small set of documents. The vendor statement — known almost universally as the Section 32 — is the most consequential of them.

Drafted before the contract is signed, it carries the vendor's disclosures about title, planning, building, and the dozens of other matters that change what a buyer is actually purchasing. The discipline of reading it well is, more than almost anything else, the difference between a clean settlement and a complicated one.

What the statement must contain

The Sale of Land Act sets a precise list. Title particulars and any restrictions on it. Mortgages discharged at settlement. Outgoings — rates, owners corporation fees, land tax — and the periods to which they relate. Notices, orders and declarations affecting the land. Building permits issued in the last seven years. Insurance, services, planning, and zoning information.

A vendor statement is not a brochure. It is the legal mirror of the property — and like all mirrors, what's missing tells you as much as what's there.

Where vendors quietly get it wrong

Most omissions are not deliberate. The common ones cluster in the same places every year: building works without permits, owners corporation special levies that have been resolved but not paid, and easements that have shifted with new subdivisions. A careful read picks up the signals — and a careful conveyancer asks the right follow-up.

How to approach it as a buyer

Read it once for shape, twice for detail. Cross-check the title plan against the property you walked through. Ask for missing documents directly rather than inferring. And budget time for a lawyer's review before you sign — not after.