Latest conveyancing insights

Most Australians who buy a home buy freehold, and never give the word a second thought. But every so often a contract lands on our desk for a waterfront cottage, a marina berth, a holiday shack on a reserve or a rural block out west, and the title search shows something different: the buyer is not acquiring the land at all, but the remaining years of a lease from the Crown.

In 19th century Britain, "resurrection men" dug up the freshly buried and sold them to anatomy schools. Today, in NSW, your remains can be lifted from your grave perfectly legally. All that's needed is an expiry date, no shovel in the night required.