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Contracts that contradict themselves

Picture of Lindel Enticott Lindel Enticott October 26, 2026

Buyer Due Diligence Victoria Buying Vendor Statement (section 32) Contract Review
Contracts that contradict themselves
From 1,410 Victorian contracts of sale

About one in twenty contracts we reviewed contradicted its own attachments

A contract of sale is assembled from dozens of documents, by different people, at different times. Sometimes they disagree. Here's what that looked like across 1,410 Victorian contracts.

The vendor statement said
No building works
The attachments showed
A building permit
1 in 2068 of 1,410 contracts contradicted their own building works disclosure

A Victorian contract of sale isn't really one document.

It's the contract. The special conditions. The vendor statement. A title search. A plan. A planning certificate. Building permits. Owners corporation records. Sometimes a pool certificate, an insurance policy or a defects report.

Each comes from somewhere different. The council. The land registry. The water authority. A builder. The seller.

Most of the time, they line up.

Sometimes, they don't.

What we found

FindingContractsShare
Standard goods warranty missing, pointing to a non-standard template
157
11%
GST clause or GST tick-boxes couldn't be located
113
8%
Building works disclosure contradicted by the attached documents
68
5%
Settlement date pages struck out or written over by hand
23
2%
Bushfire disclosure contradicted the planning report
14
1%
Vendor statement said no owners corporation, title showed one
12
1%
Seller's name didn't match the title, no evidence of a right to sell
6
<1%

Share of 1,410 Victorian contracts with a published Prepared review, 1 February to 31 August 2026. Categories overlap.

Building works: disclosed one way, attached another

68 contracts, about one in twenty, said one thing about building works in the vendor statement while the attachments said another.

The patterns repeated:

The vendor statement saysThe attachments show
Not disclosed
but a building permit attached
No building works disclosed
but a pool safety certificate for recent construction
No owner-builder works disclosed
but an owner-builder defects report attached
No builder disclosed
but domestic building insurance documents attached

None of this means the work was done badly. It means the vendor statement and the attachments tell different stories, and someone needs to establish which is right.

The bushfire box

In 14 contracts, the planning report showed the land was in a designated bushfire prone area, but the seller's disclosure said it wasn't.

That matters because bushfire prone designation can affect the building standards that apply to new work, including an extension.

The template that isn't the template

In 157 contracts (11%), the standard goods warranty in the general conditions couldn't be found. That usually means the contract is on a non-standard template.

It isn't necessarily a problem. It does mean your position on fixtures and fittings depends on whatever the contract says instead.

GST

In 113 contracts (8%), the GST clause or the GST tick-boxes couldn't be located.

For most established homes, GST isn't an issue. For new builds, off-the-plan purchases and some vacant land, it can be. Where the contract doesn't make the position clear, it's worth clarifying.

Handwriting and names

In 23 contracts, the settlement date pages had been struck out, overwritten or corrected by hand.

In 6, the seller's name didn't match the name on the title, and nothing in the contract showed why the seller had the right to sell. There's often a simple explanation, like a deceased estate or a change of name. It still needs one.

What this doesn't mean

It doesn't mean contracts are careless. They're assembled quickly, from many sources, and most mismatches are resolved with a phone call.

It doesn't mean anyone is hiding anything.

It means a contract can disagree with itself in ways you won't see unless someone puts the pages side by side.

What we'd want a buyer to know

Reading a contract isn't only checking what's in it. It's checking that the pieces agree with each other.

A disclosure on page 12 and an attachment on page 71 can say different things. Neither will point you to the other.

When they don't match, the right move is simple. Ask the question before you sign.

We check what isn't there, too.

Send us your contract.

A Prepared lawyer reads your contract the same day, for free, and flags where the documents don't agree with each other.

Based on 1,410 Victorian contracts of sale that received a published Prepared review between 1 February and 31 August 2026, across metropolitan Melbourne and weighted towards the eastern and north-eastern suburbs.
A finding is counted where a qualified reviewer confirmed it and it appeared on the published review.
A contradiction is recorded where the reviewer found a conflict between the vendor statement and the documents supplied with it. We make no finding about which document was correct, or why they differed.
This analysis describes what appeared in the contracts reviewed by Prepared and should not be taken as legal advice for a particular transaction.
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