What Is a Section 32? A Victorian Buyer’s Guide to the Vendor Statement

A Section 32 Vendor Statement is the disclosure document a Victorian seller must give a buyer before the buyer signs the contract of sale. It records what affects the land and what the vendor is required to disclose about it. such as mortgages, easements, planning restrictions, and recent building permits . You will also see it called the vendor statement.

The document takes its name from the statutory provision it comes from. Section 32 of the Sale of Land Act 1962 (Vic) obliges a vendor to give a purchaser a signed statement before the purchaser signs the contract. Conveyancers, agents and buyers refer to it by that section number.

The point is to show you the problems before you are legally bound: an undischarged mortgage, an easement through the yard, a council notice on the land. Because the statement has to reach you before you sign, that information arrives while you can still walk away.

When Should You Get a Section 32?

A Section 32 is put together on the vendor’s side, usually by their conveyancer or solicitor. It must reach you before you sign the contract of sale. As a buyer, you do not order one, it is handed to you.

In practice, the vendor’s practitioner drafts the statement and gives it to the selling agent, who provides the signed copy to buyers before the contract is signed. A Section 32 may reachyou through the agent, at an open home or by email, but the person to ask about it is your own conveyancer.

The Sale of Land Act is precise about timing: the vendor must give you a signed statement before you sign the contract, not after. That is why you read it before an auction or before an offer goes in, not at the moment you sign.

A vendor who fails to give you a statement before you sign is in breach of the Act. It is a specific offence to knowingly or recklessly withhold one, or to supply false or incomplete information in it. Your options if that happens are covered further down.

What a Section 32 Must Contain

Section 32 breaks the disclosure requirements into numbered provisions, each covering a different aspect of the land.

Disclosure area	Section of the Act	What it tells a buyer
Evidence of title	s32I	Evidence of the vendor’s title to the land
Financial matters and mortgages	s32A	Any mortgage that will not be discharged before you take possession
Land use, easements, covenants, planning and zoning	s32C	Restrictions on how the land can be used or built on
Bushfire prone area	s32C(b)	Whether the land sits in a designated bushfire prone area
Notices, orders and compulsory acquisition	s32D	Government notices or acquisition proceedings affecting the land
Building permits (last 7 years)	s32E	Recent building work permitted on the property
Insurance, including owner-builder cover	s32B	The vendor’s insurance and any owner-builder warranty cover
Owners corporation	s32F	Fees, rules and the financial position of a body corporate
Growth areas infrastructure contribution	s32G	Whether a GAIC liability attaches to the land
Services not connected	s32H	Which services are not connected

Title and mortgages

This is where the vendor’s evidence of title to the land sits. Separately, the statement must set out particulars of any mortgage over the land that will not be discharged before you take possession. That tells you whether the vendor’s loan is paid out at settlement. For an off-the-plan purchase, ask your conveyancer to walk you through what the statement shows about title.

Easements, covenants, planning and zoning

The Act requires the statement to disclose matters relating to land use: easements and covenants affecting the land, and the zoning and planning controls that apply. This is where you find out whether a drainage easement runs through the yard, whether a covenant restricts what you can build, or whether the zoning rules out your plans.

The same section covers bushfire. If the land is in an area designated as a bushfire prone area under the Building Act 1993, the statement must say so. That disclosure is about how the area is designated, not an assessment of the house itself. Read it as a prompt to ask about building requirements and insurance, not as a finding either way.

Rates, outgoings, notices and orders

The statement must include particulars of any notice, order, declaration, report or recommendation of a public authority or government department currently affecting the land. It must also disclose any notice of intention to acquire the land compulsorily. The financial matters attaching to the land go in the same statement. That is where the rates, water charges and other outgoings sit, feeding the adjustments made at settlement between you and the vendor.

Buildings, owners corporation and services

The statement must list any building permit issued in the preceding seven years for a building on the land where there is a residence. It must also give insurance details, including any owner-builder insurance that applies.

Three further disclosures sit in this part of the statement:

• whether the land is affected by an owners corporation, in which case the vendor must give the prescribed information, attach a current certificate, or state that it is inactive
• whether a growth areas infrastructure contribution applies to the land
• whether any of electricity, gas, water, sewerage or telephone services are not connected

What to Check in a Section 32 Before You Sign

A Section 32 rewards a careful read rather than a fast one. What causes a problem later can sit in the document unnoticed, because nobody checked it against the property or asked what was missing. Having a conveyancer’s review of the contract and Section 32 done before you sign gives you that check while you still have time to act.

What a Section 32 Does Not Tell You

A Section 32 discloses the legal and financial position of the land. It does not tell you about the physical condition of the property.

It is not a building or pest inspection

Consumer Affairs Victoria advises buyers to engage their own qualified building inspector, surveyor or architect for a professional inspection report before signing. It also warns buyers to be wary of any inspection report offered by the agent or vendor.

A Section 32 will not tell you whether:

• the roof, foundations or subfloor are structurally sound
• there is pest or termite damage
• past renovations were carried out to a compliant standard

That check is yours to arrange, and a qualified conveyancer can negotiate building and pest inspections as a condition of sale on your behalf.

The due diligence checklist is a separate document

A vendor selling vacant residential land or land with a residence must make a due diligence checklist available to prospective buyers. That obligation starts from the time the property is offered for sale. Consumer Affairs Victoria confirms all sellers or agents must make this checklist available to potential buyers, so ask for it if you have not been given one. A seller with no agent carries that duty personally, along with preparing the statement itself, which is part of private sale conveyancing.

How Long Is a Section 32 Valid For?

The Act sets no expiry date on a Section 32 statement under Section 32O. What it does require is that the statement be accurate and complete at the point it is given to you, before you sign.

Section 32O confirms this indirectly. Suppose a vendor and purchaser who already exchanged a Section 32 statement go on to enter a subsequent contract for the same land. Where the terms are substantially the same, the vendor does not have to give another statement. The Act is built around accuracy at the time of signing, not a fixed shelf life for the document.

Why an old statement is still a problem

An older statement can still fail the accuracy test, because the facts underneath it can move. Consumer Affairs Victoria is clear that the statement must be factually accurate and complete. A new rate notice, a fresh council notice or a change to an owners corporation’s finances can all date a statement. If your copy looks old, ask when it was prepared.

How Much Does a Section 32 Cost in Victoria?

There is no set fee for a Section 32 in Victoria. What has to go into the statement changes with the property, and so does the cost of putting it together.

The obligation to give you the statement rests with the vendor, and the statement is prepared by the vendor’s legal practitioner or conveyancer. As a buyer, you are given the Section 32 rather than buying it.

The cost of preparing a statement comes down to two things:

• the conveyancer’s or solicitor’s fee for putting it together
• the searches and certificates a conveyancer orders from council, the water authority, the titles office and any owners corporation

A property affected by an owners corporation has a certificate to attach, and land with a growth areas infrastructure contribution recording has its own certificates or notices. What goes into a statement, and what it costs to assemble, moves with the property rather than following a fixed schedule.

To see what your own purchase or sale is likely to involve, a quote for your own matter will reflect the certificates your property needs.

What Happens If the Section 32 Is Wrong or Missing?

What happens next depends on which problem you have: a statement you were never given, or one that turns out to be wrong.

If a problem turns up, your practical options are:

• rescinding the contract before you accept title, where you qualify
• raising the issue with the vendor’s conveyancer and negotiating a resolution
• getting legal advice specific to your contract and circumstances

If you were never given one

You may rescind the contract at any time before you accept title if the vendor failed to give you a Section 32 statement before you signed. Rescinding unwinds the contract as though it never happened, rather than locking you into a sale you never had proper disclosure for.

If it is inaccurate or incomplete

Consumer Affairs Victoria is clear that a buyer may be able to withdraw from the sale or take legal action if the statement contains incorrect or insufficient information. It is also an offence for a vendor to knowingly or recklessly supply false or incomplete information in a Section 32. The penalty runs to 300 penalty units for a body corporate, or 60 penalty units in other cases.

The defence a vendor can raise

A vendor is not automatically without a defence. A court can excuse a contravention and refuse rescission, but only where it is satisfied of both of the following.

The vendor has to establish two things at once:

• that the vendor acted honestly and reasonably, and ought fairly to be excused for the contravention
• that you are substantially in as good a position as if the requirements had been met

That is a deliberately high bar for the vendor to clear.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a Section 32 in Australia?

Section 32 is Victorian terminology. It refers to section 32 of Victoria’s Sale of Land Act 1962, the provision requiring a seller’s disclosure statement before a buyer signs. Other states have their own disclosure laws under their own names, so ask a local conveyancer if you are buying interstate.

How do I get a Section 32 in Victoria?

As a buyer, you do not order it yourself. The vendor’s conveyancer or solicitor prepares it, and the selling agent provides you with a copy. If an agent has not given you one, ask for it before you sign anything. If you are the seller rather than the buyer and there is no agent, we prepare the statement and the contract as part of private sale conveyancing.

Can I download a Section 32 template?

No. A Section 32 is prepared by the vendor’s conveyancer or solicitor for one specific property, and its content comes from that property’s own title, notices and certificates. A generic template would not be accurate for the property you are looking at.

Is there an example Section 32 I can look at?

A sample from another property will not show you what applies to yours. Your time is better spent on the actual statement in front of you, read against the checks above. Ask your conveyancer to walk you through it before you sign.

How long does it take to get a Section 32?

There is no fixed timeframe set by the Act. It only requires the statement to be ready and given to you before you sign, not produced within a set number of days. If one is delayed, ask the agent or the vendor’s conveyancer what is holding it up.