Conveyancing and Christmas Holidays
With the 2025 Christmas holidays fast approaching, buyers and sellers of property in Queensland should be aware of the impacts this period has on their transactions.
Under the commonly used REIQ Contract for the Sale and Purchase of Residential and Commercial Real Estate (First Editions) (Contract), key dates such as the finance condition, building and pest inspection condition, and settlement date must fall on a Business Day. The Contract defines Business Days as being days other than:
- a Saturday or Sunday;
- a public holiday or special holiday in the Place for Settlement (usually Brisbane); and
- a day in the period 27 to 31 December (inclusive).
With this in mind, any day in the period from 25 December 2025 to 1 January 2026 (inclusive) will not be considered a Business Day, meaning any key dates that fall due over this period will automatically move to 2 January 2026. This is because there are public holidays on 25 December 2025 (Christmas Day), 26 December 2025 (Boxing Day), and 1 January 2026 (New Year’s Day), so this period will effectively put dates “on hold”.
For example, if a Contract stipulates that a finance condition falls due at 5:00pm on 26 December 2025, the due date for this condition will be extended to 5:00pm on 2 January 2026 due to the definition of Business Day and the requirement in the Contract that a date cannot fall on a day that is not a Business Day.
However, it is important to note that calculating the expiry of the statutory cooling-off provisions takes a different approach. If a Contract that is subject to the statutory cooling-off provisions is signed and acceptance communicated on 24 December 2025, the cooling-off period will expire at 5:00pm on 2 January 2025, being 5 Business Days later. The Contractual “break” between 27 December 2025 and 31 December 2025 does not apply to the cooling-off provisions because these rights are dealt with under separate legislation.
Given this, it is important that you engage an experienced law firm to assist with your conveyancing needs to ensure your rights and interests are protected.
Please note that our office will be closed from 5:00pm on 23 December 2025 and will reopen at 8:30am on 7 January 2026. Given our closure period extends beyond the “holiday” set out by the REIQ Contracts, our conveyancing team will contact our conveyancing clients leading up to the holidays to discuss their matters where necessary. We also encourage all buyers and sellers to speak to their solicitors to discuss closure periods, as each firm will have its own holiday break which may or may not align with the REIQ Contracts.
It is important for parties to understand and calculate key dates correctly to ensure their rights and interests are protected. If a key date is incorrectly calculated, a party may, for example, lose their right to terminate the Contract. This may result in serious financial and legal implications which can be easily avoided.
If you are looking at buying or selling a property in the lead up to Christmas (or any other major holiday period such as Easter), you can contact our conveyancing team by calling 07 3397 9622 or emailing conveyancing@smlawyers.com.au to discuss your matter. Our conveyancing team is equipped with the expertise and experience to assist with all matter types, including drafting seller disclosure statements and contracts of sale, to ensure you are adequately informed and protected.
