Cooling-off and contracts in Queensland

Queensland gives a buyer under a private treaty contract five business days to cool off, and none at all at auction. The contract form matters here: since 1 August 2025 the seller must hand over a disclosure statement and prescribed certificates before the buyer signs, and the conditions a buyer relies on only exist if they are written into the contract.

The cooling-off period

A cooling-off period of 5 business days applies to contracts for the sale of residential property. It starts on the day the buyer receives a copy of the contract signed by both parties, not the day the buyer signs. To cancel, the buyer gives written notice by 5pm on the fifth business day, delivered in person, by email or by fax.

The seller may deduct a penalty of up to 0.25% of the purchase price from the deposit, and must refund the rest of the deposit within 14 days.

No different period for an off-the-plan contract is stated here.

When there is no cooling-off

There is no cooling-off period at auction; the successful bidder signs the contract immediately. The exclusion follows the buyer for two more days: a private treaty contract entered into within 2 business days of an unsuccessful auction of the same property, where the buyer was a registered bidder, has no cooling-off period either. Agree more than 2 days after the auction and the period applies again.

The buyer can also waive or shorten the period, and that must be put in writing. A waiver signed with the contract leaves the buyer in the auction position, bound with no exit.

What the seller must give you

From 1 August 2025 the Property Law Act 2023 introduced a mandatory seller disclosure scheme for existing residential and commercial property and vacant land. The seller, or an authorised agent, must give the buyer a seller disclosure statement in the approved form, Form 2, and the prescribed certificates before the buyer signs.

The prescribed certificates for a lot include a title search showing the interests registered under the Land Title Act 1994, the registered plan of survey, and other notices depending on the property type. For a lot in a community titles scheme the seller must also give the community management statement and a body corporate certificate, which covers the levies, the insurance cover, any outstanding contributions or debts on the lot, and how expenses are shared between owners.

If the seller does not comply with the scheme, the buyer may be able to terminate the contract. The seller has to prove the statement was given, so a read receipt or signed acknowledgement is commonly asked for and kept. Buyers commonly go through the documents with a solicitor before signing: the title search shows who owns the lot and what is registered against it; the body corporate certificate shows what the lot costs to hold. What else Form 2 covers, and how disclosure is given before an auction, are not stated here.

The contract, the deposit and settlement

There is no set deposit amount in Queensland. The seller decides what they will accept, and a common pattern is a small deposit on signing with the balance once the contract becomes unconditional. A contract can be made subject to conditions: whether the buyer can get finance, what a building and pest inspection finds, or whether the buyer can sell an existing property. If a condition cannot be met the buyer can cancel, but only because the contract says so; the right to cancel on a poor inspection report must be written in.

The settlement date is fixed in the contract. Queensland sets no standard settlement period, so the figure an agent quotes is a convention, not a rule. Settlement is electronic: Queensland requires the main transfer documents to be lodged through eConveyancing. The buying process page covers who does the conveyancing.

Before you sign

1. Send the contract, the Form 2 statement and every prescribed certificate to a solicitor before signing anything.
2. Keep the email or receipt showing when the disclosure statement and certificates arrived.
3. Write the finance condition in, with a date the lender can meet.
4. Write the building and pest condition in, with the right to cancel on an unsatisfactory report.
5. Count the cooling-off end date in business days and note the settlement date.
6. List the inclusions and exclusions on the contract itself, not in an email.
7. Confirm the deposit amount, who holds it and when the balance is due.
8. Read any cooling-off waiver as what it is: the auction position, with no exit once signed.