How Cool Is "Cooling Off" In Real Estate Contracts?
by Tim O’Dwyer M.A., LL.B Queensland Solicitor & Consumer Advocate watchdog@argonautlegal.com.au
When is a contract not a contract?Time was, when cooling-off periods applied only to door-to-door sales contracts. Nowadays in most parts of Australia – Queensland included – residential property buyers may validly terminate “signed-sealed-and-delivered” contracts during the cooling-off periods allowed by real estate laws. Governments and their Fair Trading offices say this is an excellent consumer protection mechanism for buyers, but fail to appreciate that Mum-and-Dad sellers can also be protection-worthy real estate consumers.
Answer: When the law lets a buyer cool-off and cancel the contract.

How fair is a buyer’s cooling-off right when its exercise can inconvenience not only innocent sellers but also everyone else involved in a sale – agents, solicitors, insurers, finance brokers, building and pest inspectors, valuers, sellers’ mortgagees and buyers’ financiers?
To my mind, cooling-off is a poorly-conceived, after-the-event approach to consumer protection. A better way to protect buyers and sellers alike is to keep agents out of the contract-making process. Only those legally qualified should be legally allowed to prepare legally binding contracts.
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