In focus
Reading the contract, with a pencil
An ACT contract for sale is a bundle: parties, price, completion date, inclusions, the Crown lease, searches, an energy rating, and, for a unit, the units plan and a unit title sale certificate. This page is the doorway. The long note is the guide on reading that bundle, and it should be in your hands before you ask anyone to waive cooling-off.
What to mark first
- Names of the buyers, matching the names you mean to use.
- Block, section and division, or unit and units plan.
- Price, deposit wording, and the completion date.
- Inclusions, checked against the rooms you walked.
- Lease purpose, term, and any rent clause.
- Dates on the Lease Conveyancing Inquiry and the energy rating.
- Whether cooling-off applies, or whether the sale is an auction or another exception in the Act.
Special conditions are where deadlines hide. A finance date exists only if it is written. An agent’s memory of your plans is not a clause.
The Act’s cooling-off structure, the section 17 certificate, and the questions to ask a conveyancer each have their own note. Read those before you sign anything that gives a door away.
Reading an ACT contract for sale