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Tomorrow, Thursday, 22 September, the nation halts to remember the life of the longest-serving British monarch ever, Queen Elizabeth II, who passed recently at the age of 96.
While the conditions of the public holiday are different depending on the business type, some businesses — petrol stations and chemists among others — will be allowed to operate.
Due to their classification as an “office”, real estate agencies are unable to open or conduct business on Thursday. This also prevents the conducting of property inspections and holding of auctions and open homes.
Due to the unplanned nature of both the Queen’s untimely death and the announcement of a national public holiday to mourn by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, many businesses may have been left in the lurch regarding business planned for Thursday.
One such area of confusion to consider for agents is regarding cooling-off periods. In response to the public holiday, the Real Estate Institute of Queensland (REIQ) has offered proprietors a reminder that residential property contracts are subject to a cooling-off period — between three and five days, depending on the state.
This doesn’t apply in the event of a property sold subject to auction conditions or the buyer has opted to waiver it.
Statutory cooling-off periods begin on the date the buyer receives a copy of their contract duly signed by both parties and concludes at 5pm on the relevant final business day, whether that be the third, fifth or other.
Should the final day of this period fall on a public holiday, such as Thursday’s Queen Memorial Day, the cooling-off period ends on the next business day.
The institute implores agents to ensure they retain adequate records evidencing the date of delivery of the signed contract to the buyer, in order to properly respond in the event that a dispute arises surrounding the effective period of the cooling-off period.
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