Queensland is different: there is no licenced conveyancer here
In New South Wales and Victoria, a licenced conveyancer is a separate regulated professional who can legally handle residential property transfers without being a solicitor. Queensland does not have that regime. Under the Legal Profession Act 2007 (Qld), paid conveyancing work in Queensland must be carried out by a solicitor holding a current practicing certificate.
What this means in practice is that the businesses advertising low-cost conveyancing in Queensland are law firms, staffed by solicitors and supervised staff. It also means that when you handle the conveyancing yourself, you are not simply filling in forms: you are performing legal work, without legal training, and without the professional indemnity insurance that sits behind a solicitor if something goes wrong.
The five-business-day cooling-off period: what it does and does not do
Under section 166 of the Property Occupations Act 2014 (Qld), a buyer who signs a residential property contract other than at auction has five business days to change their mind. The period begins the day the buyer receives a copy of the contract signed by both parties, weekends and public holidays are excluded, and it ends at 5pm on the fifth business day.
If you terminate within that window, the seller is entitled to retain 0.25% of the purchase price as a termination penalty. On a $750,000 property that is $1,875. The balance of any deposit must be refunded to you.
The cooling-off right sounds like a safety net, but it is a narrow one. It does not apply to auction purchases. It does not give you a right to renegotiate: you either proceed or you terminate and pay the penalty. It does not protect you from a contract you have already made unconditional. And if the five days pass without you taking action, you are bound, regardless of what you discover afterwards.
“The cooling-off period is not a substitute for reading the contract before you sign it. Five business days is long enough to feel unhurried and short enough to expire before a building inspection is even booked.” |
The seller disclosure regime: what changed on 1 August 2025
The Property Law Act 2023 (Qld), which commenced on 1 August 2025 and replaced the old Property Law Act 1974 (Qld), introduced a mandatory seller disclosure regime for Queensland property sales. Under section 99, a seller must give the buyer a signed disclosure statement in the approved form, together with the prescribed certificates, before the buyer signs the contract.
The disclosure statement covers the property’s title details, registered encumbrances, certain rates and water information, and, for community titles schemes, body corporate information. The prescribed certificates can include a body corporate certificate for community titles properties and other documents required under other Acts.
The critical change is the timing: the information must now reach the buyer before they sign. Section 104 gives the buyer a right to terminate, and how that right works depends on what went wrong. If the seller fails altogether to give a compliant disclosure statement or a prescribed certificate before the buyer signs, the buyer may terminate at any time before settlement, without having to show the omission affected their decision. If the seller does give disclosure but it is inaccurate or incomplete, the buyer may terminate only where the error concerned a material matter, the buyer did not know the true position when they signed, and the buyer would not have signed had they known. Either way, getting disclosure wrong carries real consequences for a seller, and understanding the disclosure is an important part of a buyer’s decision.
This makes reviewing the disclosure statement, and understanding what it does and does not tell you, an important part of the pre-signing process. A solicitor acting for you in a Queensland property purchase will review the disclosure before you are asked to sign anything.
The real risks of going unrepresented
Most problems in property transactions are not dramatic. They are quiet: a deadline missed, a condition not activated properly, a title issue that was disclosed but not understood. Here are the situations where unrepresented buyers most commonly come unstuck.
Going unconditional before you are ready. A contract becomes unconditional when all of its conditions, such as a finance condition or a building and pest inspection condition, have either been satisfied or waived. Once the contract is unconditional, you must settle. If your finance falls through after that point, you are in default. The seller can keep your deposit, and may also be entitled to sue you for any shortfall if they resell the property for less than your contract price. Making sure finance and building and pest conditions are properly drafted, and that you understand exactly when and how to act on them, is something solicitors deal with on every residential purchase.
Finance and building inspection condition traps. The standard contract includes a finance condition and an option to include a building and pest inspection condition. Each has a specific timeframe and a specific mechanism for satisfaction or termination. If the timeframe lapses without the condition being extended or properly acted on, you can lose the protection of that condition even though your bank has not formally approved your loan or you have not yet had the property inspected. These traps are real, and they catch buyers managing the process without knowing the deadlines are running.
Title and encumbrance issues. A title search will reveal registered mortgages, caveats, easements and covenants on the land. An easement or covenant can carry ongoing obligations that bind you as the new owner. If you are purchasing land that is subject to an easement or covenant of that kind, you need to understand what those obligations are before you are bound to the contract. Missing a caveat, or failing to understand an encumbrance that affects your use of the property, is the kind of problem that is very difficult to undo after settlement.
Time is of the essence. Queensland property contracts operate on the basis that time is of the essence for the settlement date and for condition deadlines. This is not a technicality: it means a party who is not ready to settle on the nominated date is in breach, and the other party can terminate and seek damages. If you are managing settlement yourself and something goes wrong on the day, knowing your legal position and how to exercise your rights properly is not something you can improvise.
When a contract review before signing matters most
The honest answer is almost always. The standard contract includes pages of conditions that have been interpreted by courts over many years. Special conditions, the negotiated terms typed into the contract, vary significantly from one transaction to the next. A solicitor reviewing the contract before you sign will look at whether the conditions are drafted to protect you, whether there are any unusual or onerous terms, whether the chattels included in the sale are correctly listed, and whether there is anything in the seller’s disclosure that warrants further investigation or a price negotiation before you commit.
The cost of a contract review is modest against the purchase price of any Queensland property. If the review identifies a defect that leads to a price reduction, or a properly drafted condition that lets you exit cleanly when finance does not come through, it has more than paid for itself. You can read more about how the firm approaches conveyancing in Queensland and what is involved in a typical residential transaction.
What this means for you
If you are buying at auction, there is no cooling-off period
Auction contracts are unconditional and binding at the fall of the hammer. The cooling-off right in section 166 of the Property Occupations Act 2014 (Qld) does not apply. If you are bidding at auction, you should have the contract and any available searches reviewed beforehand, because once you win you own it on those terms.
If you are buying privately, read the disclosure before you sign
From 1 August 2025, the seller must give you a disclosure statement before you sign the contract. That document contains information that may affect your decision, including encumbrances and, for units and townhouses, body corporate details. A solicitor can explain what the disclosure tells you and, just as importantly, what questions it raises that the disclosure alone does not answer.
If your finance is not yet approved, make sure the contract reflects that
A properly drafted finance condition gives you an exit if your loan is not approved within the agreed period. A condition that is ambiguously worded, or a timeframe too short to allow a realistic bank assessment, can leave you bound to a contract even if your finance never comes through. This is one of the most common and most preventable problems in residential conveyancing.
If you are selling, your disclosure obligations are now more demanding
A seller who does not give a compliant disclosure statement before the contract is signed is exposed to the buyer terminating at any time before settlement. Getting the disclosure right, and giving it at the right time, is not optional.
Property and conveyancing Whether you are buying or selling, our Queensland conveyancing team can review your contract before you sign, manage the transaction through to settlement, and make sure nothing is missed. |
This article is general information only and not legal advice. The rules summarised here are drawn from the Property Law Act 2023 (Qld), the Property Occupations Act 2014 (Qld), and the Legal Profession Act 2007 (Qld), and can apply differently depending on your circumstances. Contact Fraser Lawyers for advice specific to your situation.
If you would like to discuss your matter, you can book a consultation or call (07) 5554 6116.
