Welcome to the Digital Contracts Service Frequently Asked Questions. Here you can find a list of questions to help you guide through our new service, whether you need this service now or you come from our old system ECOS.

If you can't find what you're looking for here, please contact us via email or call us on 9926 0143, and a member of our team will help you with your query.

Table of contents

• How do I log into Digital Contracts Service?

• Don’t Have a LawID account? 

• Want to know more about LawID?

• Can I pay by cheque?

• How many emails will I receive?

• Will my credit card details be stored on DCS?

• Can I get a refund for a Contract I purchased by mistake?

• How many times can I download and/or print the Contract I purchased?

• Can I save a Contract and return to complete the details at a later stage?

• Can I edit a Contract I purchased after it has been generated?

• Can I enter a matter number or vendor name so it is easier for me to find the right Contract?

• What browser is the best for viewing DCS?

• Will I be able to access my previous contracts purchased in ECOS?

• What will happen to any prepaid balances?

• Can I save a Contract and return to complete the details at a later stage?

• What are the differences between each Contract type?

• Where can I obtain a sample copy of the 2022 edition of the Contract for Sale and Purchase of Land?

• Can I use a previous edition of the Contract?

• What are the changes in the 2022 edition of the Contract for Sale and Purchase of Land from previous editions?

• Where can I obtain a copy of the updated statutory notices? 

• Can I save a Contract and return to complete the details at a later stage?
   

• What are the changes in the 2021 edition of the Contract for Sale and Purchase of Business from previous editions?
   

• What are the changes in the 2021 edition of the Law Society Commercial Lease?

• How will I receive the lease?

• How many times can I download the lease I purchased?

• What are the changes in the 2021 edition of the Law Society Retail Lease?

• How will I receive the lease?

• How many times can I download the lease I purchased?

• Where can I get a copy of the disclosure statements?

• Where can I get a copy of the Retail Leases Tenant’s Guide?

• WARNING about using the 2018 editions and why have the 2018 editions been superseded?

• Do I need to include Lease Form 07L?

Digital Contracts Service

How do I log into Digital Contracts Service?

Digital Contracts Service will be accessible with LawID.

If you don't have LawID, click here to log on.

Don’t Have a LawID account? 

Click here to create an account.

Want to know more about LawID?

For more information on LawID click here

Can I pay by cheque?

Currently, only credit card payments are supported through DCS however pre-payment can be made in advance so that credit card processing isn’t required for each purchase. Should you wish to pre-pay for a set number of contracts by cheque or EFT, this can be accommodated in certain circumstances. Please email details of the requirement to dcs-support@lawsociety.com.au and a member of our Finance team will be in contact.

How many emails will I receive?

DCS does not send out email notifications.  All purchases and Tax Invoices / Receipts are available online for download.

Should more than one contract be purchased, the Tax invoice / Receipt will contain a list of all contracts in the one invoice. The invoice will contain details of all contracts that have been purchased during the session. Each of the contract clauses will be watermarked with the address of the property.

The exception is for Master contract for Off the Plan Development where only ONE electronic contract will be produced and watermarked with the details of the range of addresses. Should you wish to create individual electronic contracts for each of a range of properties, the Multiple Contracts for Multiple Properties option will allow you to produce contracts in this fashion.

Will my credit card details be stored on DCS?

Your credit card details will not be stored on DCS and will be processed using a secure payment gateway. Authorisation codes are returned from the payment gateway to confirm the success of the transaction but no record of the specific credit card number, expiry, or CCV/CVV are kept by DCS.

Can I get a refund for a Contract I purchased by mistake?

Visit the Licence for use of the Electronic Contract for Sale and Purchase of Land and the Electronic Contract for Sale and Purchase of Business page.

How many times can I download and/or print the Contract I purchased?

Once you have purchased a contract, you can use the downloaded copies, which will carry the watermarked address, for the purpose of exchanging contracts for that particular property. Only one copy of the contract needs to be purchased and can be printed as many times as required for that particular conveyance.

The copyright for the current edition as well as the previous editions of the contract are vested jointly with the Law Society of NSW and the Real Estate Institute of NSW. Full copyright guidelines can be found here.

Can I save a Contract and return to complete the details at a later stage?

Yes. You can save a contract to your ‘My Purchase History’ page. The contract will remain on the ‘My Purchase History’  page with a status of ‘In Progress’ until it is finalised and purchased, deleted, or the contract has been superseded by another edition.

Can I edit a Contract I purchased after it has been generated?

The front four pages of the contract can be altered by you at any time and in line with the copyright of the edition you are using. Once the clauses for a Contract for a property has been generated, the property identification in theform of a watermark is finalised and cannot be changed. If you have made an error in the address spelling or similar, you have a once off ability to edit the contract details up until the time when the contract has been superseded by another edition.

Can I enter a matter number or vendor name so it is easier for me to find the right Contract?

The 'REFERENCE ID' is a free format field where a matter number or vendor name can be entered. Any information that assists you in differentiating or identifying an eContract can be put in this area.

What browser is the best for viewing DCS?

The DCS site is optimised for viewing in modern web browsers so you may find that you have issues with older versions of Chrome or Microsoft Chrome. Mozilla Firefox and Safari are also supported but may present some site rendering issues.

Will I be able to access my previous contracts purchased in ECOS? 

Any previous contract purchases will no longer be available in ECOS from early 2022. We recommend you download these if you wish to keep a record. Alternatively, email dcs-support@lawsociety.com.au by 30 June 2022 to have them sent to you.

What will happen to any prepaid balances?

Your prepaid balance will be migrated from ECOS to DCS by early 2022.

If your LawID account has been set up using a different email to your ECOS account, we will not be able to identify your account balance for transfer. If this applies to you, please notify us at dcs-support@lawsociety.com.au so we can transfer your balance.

Contract for the Sale and Purchase of Land

What are the differences between each Contract type?

Standard Contract is for properties in suburban and rural locations

This option also allows the entry of non-standard property and land descriptions that are usually associated with rural properties. This includes property names and descriptions.

Multiple contracts for multiple properties (max 20 properties). Allows a number of separate properties to be listed on multiple separate contracts. This function supports a quicker method of producing a number of contracts for properties with similar addresses. Multiple Contracts for Multiple Properties will usually cover a series of apartments, townhouses, or houses in the same street. eg three separate contracts for unit 7, unit 11 and unit 18 at 23 Smith Street in Smithfield.

Master contract for Off the Plan Development. This is a variation of Multiple Contracts for Multiple Properties and allows a contiguous range to be entered. For example, apartments 1 – 100 is entered ‘1-100’ in the Address Range field. The cost of purchasing Multiple Contracts is calculated based on the range entered, however only one physical contract will be produced which can be used by the purchaser within the copyright limitations.

Where can I obtain a sample copy of the 2022 edition of the Contract for Sale and Purchase of Land?

A sample copy of the 2022 edition of the Contract for Sale and Purchase of Land is available for inspection here.

Publishers and Educational Institutions wanting to include the sample Contract as part of their publications or teaching materials must obtain a Copyright Clearance from the Copyright Officer by sending an email to CorpLegal@lawsociety.com.au. Use of the sample Contract by Publishers and Educational Institutions is subject to the Copyright Guidelines.

Can I use a previous edition of the Contract?

The Law Society recommends that you move to the new edition as soon as possible. Note that the Contract for the Sale and Purchase of Land 2019 edition will be withdrawn from sale at the end of October 2022. 

The 2022 Edition includes the changes made to some of the prescribed warning notices, and the cooling off notice, by the Conveyancing (Sale of Land) Regulation 2022, which commenced on 1 September 2022.  Further information about the Regulation is available here.  

The Regulation provides a six-month transition period which effectively means: 

• either the revised form, or the pre-1 September 2022 form of the notices may be used in a contract which is exchanged/made from and including 1 September 2022 to 28 February 2023; and

• the revised form of the notices must be used in a contract which is exchanged/made from and including 1 March 2023. 

The 2022 Edition is the result of a comprehensive review of the 2019 Edition, and includes a number of significant changes, including in relation to: eConveyancing, service and e-lodgment Subscribers, EFT payments, the First Home Buyer Choice Scheme, and execution (including facilitating electronic execution). For a detailed summary of the changes made see the Summary of main changes made in the Contract for the Sale and Purchase of Land 2022 Edition.

What are the changes in the 2022 edition of the Contract for Sale and Purchase of Land from previous editions?

Find the summary of changes here.

Where can I obtain a copy of the updated statutory notices? 

A two-page document containing the revised form of the amended prescribed warning notices and cooling off notice is available here. This document may be inserted to replace pages 4 and 5 of the Contract for the Sale and Purchase of Land 2019 Edition.   

The revised form of the amended prescribed warning notices and the cooling off notice: 

• may be used in a contract which is exchanged/made from and including 1 September 2022 to 28 February 2023; and 
• must be used in a contract which is exchanged/made from and including 1 March 2023. 

Practitioners may wish to consider doing an audit of any unexchanged contracts well before the expiry of the transition period on 28 February 2023. 

The amended prescribed warning notices and cooling off notice are contained in the Contract for the Sale and Purchase of Land 2022 Edition.   

Can I save a Contract and return to complete the details at a later stage?

Yes. You can save a contract to your ‘My Purchase History’ page. The Contract will remain on ' My Purchase History’ page with a status of 'Continue’ until it is finalised and purchased until it is deleted or until the contract has been superseded by another edition.

Can I edit a Contract I purchased after it has been generated?  The front four pages of the contract can be altered by you at any time and in line with the copyright of the edition you are using. Once the clauses for a Contract for a property has been generated, the property identification in the form of a watermark is finalised and cannot be changed. If you have made an error in the address spelling or similar, you have a once-off ability to edit the contact details up until the time when the contract has been superseded by another edition.

Contract for the Sale and Purchase of Business

What are the changes in the 2021 edition of the Contract for Sale and Purchase of Business from previous editions?

Find the summary of changes here.

Law Society Commercial Lease 2021

What are the changes in the 2021 edition of the Law Society Commercial Lease?

Please see information on our page: Law Society Commercial Lease 2021 and Retail Lease 2021.

How will I receive the lease?

Annexures A and B will be a single editable pdf document. All purchased documents, tax invoices/receipts are available online for download.

How many times can I download the lease I purchased?

Once you have purchased a lease it can be used only in relation to one leasing transaction under the terms and conditions of the licence for use.

Law Society Retail Lease 2021

What are the changes in the 2021 edition of the Law Society Retail Lease?

Please see information on our page: Law Society Commercial Lease 2021 and Retail Lease 2021.

How will I receive the lease?

Annexures A and B will be a single editable pdf document. All purchased documents, tax invoices/receipts are available online for download.

How many times can I download the lease I purchased?

Once you have purchased a lease it can be used only in relation to one leasing transaction under the terms and conditions of the Licence for use.

Where can I get a copy of the disclosure statements?

For a copy of the Retail Lease Lessor and Lessee’s disclosure statement click here.

Where can I get a copy of the Retail Leases Tenant’s Guide?

For a copy of the NSW Retail Tenancy Guide click here.

Superseded Law Society Commercial Lease 2018 and Law Society Retail Lease 2018

WARNING about using the 2018 editions and why have the 2018 editions been superseded?

The Law Society of NSW revised the 2018 editions and issued the 2021 editions to ensure compatibility with the mandatory electronic registration of leases, applicable from 11 October 2021. As the 2018 editions have been superseded, they should only be used with care and in very limited cases, such as the exercise of an option, please see the WARNING. For information regarding the changes made in the 2021 editions please see: Law Society Commercial Lease 2021 and Retail Lease 2021.