QLD seller disclosure regime: what NSW can learn (and what's coming)
Queensland requires property sellers to disclose known defects, flooding history, contamination, and body corporate issues before sale. NSW requires almost none of this. The buyer bears the cost of discovering material risks after exchange. Here is how every state compares, why this matters for conveyancers, and what the Productivity Commission has recommended.
What sellers must disclose, by state
Mandatory vendor disclosure obligations at point of residential sale
| State | Known defects | Flooding | Contamination | Encumbrances | Body corp | Strength |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| QLD Form 24a + Property Sustainability Declaration | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Strong |
| VIC Section 32 Vendor Statement | — | — | — | ✓ | ✓ | Moderate |
| SA Form 1 Vendor Statement | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Moderate |
| NSW s10.7 Certificate + Contract for Sale | — | — | — | ✓ | — | Weak |
| WA Joint Form of General Conditions | — | — | — | ✓ | — | Weak |
“Flooding” and “Contamination” refer to mandatory vendor disclosure of known history or risk, not planning certificate flags. NSW's s10.7 discloses planning controls, not property condition.
What Queensland's Form 24a actually requires
Under the Property Law Act 1974 (Qld), sellers of residential property must provide a completed Form 24a (Seller's Disclosure Statement) before the buyer signs the contract. The form is not optional. If the seller fails to provide it, or provides false or materially incomplete information, the buyer may terminate the contract and recover costs.
What QLD Form 24a requires sellers to disclose
Under the Property Law Act 1974 (Qld) and Property Occupations Act 2014 (Qld)
Registered interests, unregistered dealings, boundary disputes, access issues
Contaminated land notices, environmental management registers, notifiable activities
Building orders, show cause notices, compliance notices, local government orders
Known defects, flooding history, asbestos, termite damage, neighbourhood nuisances
Contributions, special levies, disputes, building defects, insurance adequacy
Energy efficiency, solar, insulation, water tanks — separate form, mandatory since 2010
False or misleading statements on Form 24a can give the buyer the right to terminate the contract. This creates a genuine incentive for vendor honesty that does not exist in NSW.
The critical difference from NSW is the “known defects” obligation. Queensland sellers must disclose structural problems, water ingress, termite damage, asbestos, and past flooding — anything they are or should reasonably be aware of. The standard is not perfect; sellers can and do claim ignorance. But the existence of a statutory obligation with termination rights creates accountability that NSW's buyer-beware model lacks entirely.
Since 2010, Queensland also requires a Property Sustainability Declaration — a separate form disclosing energy efficiency features, solar installations, insulation, and water tanks. This was novel when introduced and remains the only mandatory sustainability disclosure at point of sale in Australia.
What NSW does (and doesn't) require
NSW property sales rely on three documents: the contract for sale, the title search, and the Section 10.7 planning certificate. None of these require the seller to disclose known property defects, flooding history, contamination, insurance claims, or climate risk exposure.
NSW property sale: what the buyer gets vs what stays hidden
Disclosed to buyer
Not required from vendor
In NSW, the buyer bears the cost of discovering all of the above.
What the s10.7 certificate covers
The Section 10.7 planning certificate discloses planning controls that apply to the land — zoning, heritage listings, acid sulfate soils, and flood planning area status. It answers the question “what are you allowed to build here?” It does not answer “what is wrong with what's already built?” or “what has happened here before?”
As we detailed in our analysis of s10.7 certificate gaps for flood risk, the certificate now shows less flood information than it did before 2021 due to legislative changes that removed flood planning maps from LEPs.
The legal doctrine underpinning NSW property sales is caveat emptor — buyer beware. The seller's primary obligation is not to make actively misleading statements. Silence about known problems is, in most cases, legally permissible. This places the entire burden of due diligence on the buyer, who typically has five business days (the cooling-off period) to discover issues that may take weeks to investigate.
Victoria, South Australia, and Western Australia
Victoria: Section 32 Vendor Statement
Under Section 32 of the Sale of Land Act 1962 (Vic), vendors must provide a statement covering title details, easements, covenants, owner-builder warranties, and planning information. The statement is comprehensive for title and encumbrance matters but does not require disclosure of property condition, flooding history, or environmental contamination. Victoria falls between NSW and QLD — more structured than NSW but without the defect disclosure obligation.
South Australia: Form 1 Vendor Statement
SA's Form 1 under the Land and Business (Sale and Conveyancing) Act 1994 requires disclosure of title details, encumbrances, and — notably — environmental matters including contamination and flooding designations. SA is the only state besides QLD that requires vendors to disclose environmental risk information. The form must be served on the buyer before the contract is formed.
Western Australia: minimal requirements
WA has no mandatory vendor disclosure statement equivalent to the other states. The Joint Form of General Conditions (used in most residential contracts) includes basic representations but no obligation to disclose defects, flooding, or environmental issues. Like NSW, WA operates largely on buyer beware.
The Productivity Commission's recommendation
The Productivity Commission's 2024 inquiry into National Natural Disaster Arrangements recommended that state and territory governments “require standardised, mandatory disclosure of natural hazard risks at the point of property sale.” The recommendation specifically cited flood, bushfire, and coastal hazard exposure.
Key points from the Productivity Commission report
- ●Information asymmetry between sellers and buyers is a market failure that depresses investment in mitigation
- ●Buyers who discover hazard exposure post-purchase have fewer resources for mitigation than informed pre-purchase buyers
- ●Disclosure should be standardised nationally to avoid regulatory fragmentation across states
- ●The existing patchwork (QLD Form 24a, VIC s32, SA Form 1, NSW s10.7) creates inconsistent consumer protection
No state has yet implemented the recommendation. But the direction of travel is clear: the combination of the insurance affordability crisis, the APRA stress test findings, and increasing climate litigation makes expanded vendor disclosure a question of when, not whether.
The case for mandatory hazard disclosure at sale
The argument for requiring vendors to disclose flood, bushfire, and climate risk at point of sale is straightforward: buyers cannot price risk they cannot see. When material hazard information is hidden — either by omission or by the structural limitations of instruments like the s10.7 — buyers overpay for high-risk properties and underinvest in mitigation.
APRA's Insurance CVA found that 1 in 4 Australian households will face unaffordable or unavailable insurance by 2050. A significant portion of those households purchased their properties without adequate information about climate exposure. For the detailed projection data, see our analysis of the trajectory to 2.7 million uninsurable households.
The counter-argument — that mandatory disclosure would depress property values in hazard-affected areas — is economically backwards. Prices in those areas are already mispriced upward because buyers lack information. A correction is not a loss; it is an alignment of price with reality. The loss occurs when an uninformed buyer pays too much and discovers the true cost of ownership after settlement.
What conveyancers should do now
Mandatory vendor disclosure may be coming, but conveyancers acting for buyers do not need to wait. The information is available — it is just not yet required.
1. Go beyond the s10.7
The planning certificate is a starting point, not the endpoint. Cross-reference with council flood studies, Bush Fire Prone Land mapping, and the SES Flood Data Portal. A Conveyancing Planning Disclosure report consolidates LEP, SEPP, and DCP constraints into a single document that supplements the standard certificate.
2. Recommend pre-purchase insurance quotes
Advise buyers to obtain insurance quotes before exchange, not after. The premium reflects hazard data that is not available through any public channel. A quote that reveals $4,000+ in annual flood premium is material information for purchase decisions.
3. Include climate risk in due diligence advice
Professional obligations are evolving. Failing to advise a client about material flood or bushfire exposure creates professional liability risk, particularly where the information was readily available. PlotDetect's climate risk assessment checks five government-mapped hazard layers at the property level and takes under a minute to run.
4. Document what you checked
In a future where mandatory disclosure becomes standard, conveyancers who can demonstrate they were already incorporating hazard checks into their pre-purchase advice will be ahead of the profession. Document the searches you ran, the data sources you checked, and the advice you gave. It protects you and your client.
For more on how the s10.7 certificate specifically falls short on flood risk, see our detailed analysis: Why your Section 10.7 certificate might not show flood risk.
Planning disclosure tools for conveyancers
PlotDetect's Conveyancing Planning Disclosure report consolidates LEP, SEPP, DCP, and flood overlays into a single document — filling the gaps that the s10.7 certificate leaves. See our tools for conveyancers page for the full capability.
View Conveyancing Report