 Welcome back, we're live on S.A.B.C.3, this is your feel-good-breakfast show and we're calling all first-time home buyers. Yes, calling on you to sit a little bit closer as we continue our series in giving you expert advice on making that very important first home purchase. And this morning we're joined by attorney Lisa Boniface, who's here to give us advice on that making the offer to purchase, all that it entails and of course all the important clauses that you need to consider when it comes to that contract. Listen up. Once the buyer has decided the property they want to buy, it is time to make the offer to purchase, making an offer to buy the home. Now we have attorney Lisa Boniface in studio to take us through the various clauses you need to go through. I know buying property is a huge commitment but first of all what is the offer to purchase? So Zoe, the offer to purchase, otherwise known as the deed of sale, it must at the very least contain all the essentials in terms of the Alienation of Land Act. So it's a binding agreement between purchaser and seller setting out the parties, the property description and obviously the price that's been decided upon and it must be reduced to writing. Now let's talk through some of the clauses when it comes to you know finalizing your property. I think what's very important for first-time buyers is the foots toots clause. We've all heard the phrase foots toots I'm sure at some stage of our lives it's found in many sale agreements and what first-time buyers must realize is that you're buying the property as is as it stands with all the patents and the latent defects. So the patent defects could be things that you can see with the naked eye. For instance a tile is missing or a crack in the wall. The latent defects may be something that's found at a later stage for instance leaks in the pool or after a thunderstorm when the rain comes through that could be seen as a latent defect but when you sign that sale agreement foots toots gives the seller a huge amount of protection and you buying that property as is with all of those defects and I think for a first time buyer make sure you go into every single room ask all the right questions get your seller to fill out the seller's declaration which all agencies hold and just to make sure that they are protected. Okay so I think you know for us as the buyer we also want to be protected in some way what protection is there for the buyer? Disclosure, disclosure, disclosure. So you need to ask the right questions the seller may not be aware of certain defects. Okay. So if you want to get a home inspector in do that bring in an engineer if you're concerned about the roof but really just safeguard yourself. Okay. Don't walk into the property in the evening and sign an offer to purchase. And when it comes to occupational rent let's say the seller still has occupants or they still in the home what is the what is in it for the buyer? The occupational rental clause is there for two reasons. So the first one is that the buyer may need to occupy the property prior to registration for instance he's relocating he may be selling the property he's currently in. The second big reason we have an occupational rental clause in all our office to purchase is that the seller may need to remain in the property after registration. We've often had cases in our office where the purchaser may think he's moving in at eight o'clock in the morning and all the trucks have arrived but in fact the seller's only moving out that night. So that can cause some difficulty. So I think things to remember there would be your amounts negotiated upfront as well as the time on a specific date. Okay. So at least everything has been decided upon upfront and I've heard of the suspense of clause. Do you mind shedding some light on that? There's two types of suspense of condition. The two most common types. So the first one is the agreement or the sale is subject to the purchaser obtaining a bond. It's a future event that needs to occur and it's unknown when signing that offer to purchase. So it allows that purchaser to send the OTP to the bank, obtain the finance without being liable in terms of the agreements. The second most common type of suspense of condition is the sale is subject to the purchaser selling his property. Important here for first time buyers to realise that there's a time frame attached to these. If the time frame, if the suspense of condition is not fulfilled within the time frame, then the deal becomes null and void. It's unenforceable in law. Okay. So as attorneys, we ensure that all the time frames, we know we keep a diary of all the time frames and we constantly watching those suspense of conditions. So you need to keep that in mind. Yes, definitely. Well Lisa, thank you for shedding light on that. I think it's really important and also for you to make sure that you understand all the clauses and that you are prepared for each. Now buying a home, it is exciting, but if it's not done right, it could potentially have difficult implications. Well, so whether it's your first apartment in the city, a trendy suburban townhouse, or that dream family home on a gulf estate, there's a home for everyone on private property.