Led by Lie Chin-Chin with more than 30 years of experience, Characterist LLC handles a wide spectrum of real estate related transactions. Over the decades, our Conveyancing and Property Law team has built up rich experience and expertise in all types of conveyancing transactions for all types of properties including residential, commercial, industrial, and retail properties. Characterist LLC was founded by Chin-Chin’s father, Mr Lie Kee Pong, who began his legal career as a registrar of the then Singapore Land Authority.
His legacy of rich experience and expertise in Property Law had set our firm on a strong footing for our robust and reliable conveyancing practice. Our firm has consistently won awards over the years since 2015 including Corporate INTL Global Awards for Boutique Property and Real Estate Law Firm of the Year from 2015 to 2023, Straits Times Best Law Firm award from 2021 to 2024, and Asia’s notable firm 2020, amongst others.
Crafting Your Property Transactions
With our expertise in Conveyancing and Property Law, we are able to help structure, plan and negotiate all kinds of property-related transactions. Our firm is on the panel of most banks and have been on the panel of CPF Board for than a decade. Led by Lie Chin-Chin, our Conveyancing Team has acted for clients in the following areas:
- Setting up Property Trusts
- Structuring Family Arrangements to ringfence parents’ monies used for child’s Purchase
- Sale and fractional sale of properties
- Individual and group purchases
- Sale and Purchase of Options
- Application to IRAS for adjudication of stamp fees
- Application to IRAS for waiver of Seller’s stamp Duty and ABSD
- Mortgage
- Mortgagee sale
- Redemption
- Refinancing
- JTC purchase with business proposals
- Offsetting debts with sale proceeds of property
- Subdivision of Property
- Gear up and terms loan
- Lease and Tenancies
- Purchase by children with parents’ monies
Apart from non-contentious property transactions, Characterist LLC ‘s litigation team has successfully pursued and defended clients’ rights in property transactions and co-ownership disputes and inherited property disputes.
Notable Briefs
- Successfully assisted clients to pace their transactions and structure their property portfolio, thereby helping them to achieve their ultimate goal of saving them more than $1million in ABSD with the purchase of their 4th property
- Successfully assisted a client to purchase an expiring option for a good class bungalow and sold the same within 3 years without SSD, thereby helping him to seize good investment opportunities with limited risks
- Assisted clients to set up Deeds of Indebtedness and Family Arrangements, Wills, and Powers of Attorney to ringfence family monies used to purchase family home in the name of a child, giving the patriarch and matriarch protection and peace of mind
- Successfully set up property trusts for each of the 10 properties bought by a patriarch for his 10 grandchildren. Each transaction contained different terms and conditions according to the profile of the beneficiary grandchild, thereby helping the patriarch leave a meaningful legacy to his descendants
- Set up investment company to hold income from real estate for the benefit of the family members thereby helping the client to establish a legal tool to ensure the longevity of the investment benefits for the family members
- Obtained waiver of ABSD (Trust) for a Property Trust set up for a newborn beneficiary thereby saving the parents more than $1million in ABSD
- Successfully negotiated terms of settlement to enable estranged family members to sell inherited shophouses through auctions and distribute the proceeds according to the agreed terms of settlement
What Our Clients Say
Josephine L.
Chin Chin saved me from many traps in a purchase from an unlicensed developer. I only got to realise it when my neighbours encountered grave problems that limited their rights to recover their loss which they suffered from the delay and defects. She secured my rights at the onset in the initial agreement and I was in a much better place than my neighbours.
S.C. Lee
I am happy to have Chin Chin help me set up a Property Trust for my son. I believe her cross expertise in both areas of family law and property law helped me structure a comprehensive arrangement for my family. The details took into account our preferences and addressed our concerns. My wife and I were initially not able to find sufficiently good legal help but glad that we finally found satisfactory help at Characterist LLC. I have directed all my children to look for her for future transactions.
James. O