An off-the-plan contract review starts from an awkward fact: the contract is signed against drawings and promises about what will exist years later, on the developer’s standard form, drafted to give the developer room to move. Most of the buyer’s protection comes not from the contract but from the statutes beneath it.
Those statutes give a buyer specific rights to terminate: if disclosure was not given, if it proves materially wrong, if the community management statement changes, or if settlement drags on too long. Each right has its own trigger and deadline, and several are lost by doing nothing. This article works through the clauses that matter most and the rules each is measured against.
First question: a unit in a scheme, or a block of land?
Queensland runs two separate regimes. A lot that will form part of a community titles scheme, which covers most apartments and townhouses, is sold under Chapter 5 of the Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997 (Qld): s 205AA. A lot in an ordinary land subdivision is sold under the Land Sales Act 1984 (Qld), whose definition of a proposed lot expressly excludes a lot to which the body corporate legislation applies: sch 1.
The Land Sales Act also does not apply to a large transaction of six or more lots between the same seller and buyer under one contract or contracts made within 24 hours, or to a sale arising from a reconfiguration into not more than five lots: s 3(3) and s 3(4). The deadlines differ between the regimes.
| Issue | Lot in a community titles scheme | Lot in a land subdivision |
| Governing Act | Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997 (Qld), Chapter 5 | Land Sales Act 1984 (Qld), Part 2 |
| Disclosure before signing | Disclosure statement with a disclosure plan and proposed community management statement: s 213 | Disclosure plan and statement, or the approved plan of survey: s 10 |
| Window after a corrected statement | 21 days to terminate if materially prejudiced: s 214(4) | 21 days to terminate if materially prejudiced: s 13(4) |
| Settlement delay | Buyer may terminate once the earlier of the contract’s sunset date and 5 and a half years passes, or 3 and a half years if no date is set: s 217B | Seller must settle within 18 months of the buyer entering the contract: s 14(1) |
| Deposit | Held in a prescribed trust account: s 218B | Held in a prescribed trust account: s 17 |
The disclosure statement is part of the contract you are reviewing
For a lot in a scheme, the seller must give the buyer a signed, substantially complete disclosure statement before the contract is entered into: Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997 (Qld) s 213(1), (3) and (4). Among other things, it must identify the lot, come with a disclosure plan, state the date by which the seller must settle, state the annual body corporate contributions reasonably expected, set out the terms and estimated cost of any body corporate manager or service contractor engagement and the owner’s share of that cost, set out the terms of any letting agent authorisation, and attach the proposed community management statement: s 213(2).
The disclosure plan is prepared by a cadastral surveyor and, for an apartment, shows the lot’s total area, any balcony, courtyard or carport outside the building, the floor level, the other lots on that level and the orientation: s 213AA. Compare those details with the marketing material.
The buyer may rely on the disclosure statement and each further statement as if the seller had warranted its accuracy: s 216. If no disclosure statement was given at all, the buyer may terminate before settlement: s 213(5). A statement that was substantially complete but contains inaccuracies is not a failure to disclose: s 213(6). The remedy for inaccuracy lies elsewhere.
A review checks whether the contributions figure is plausible, how long any service or caretaking agreement runs at the body corporate’s cost, and whether the community management statement reserves rights over common property that will bind owners after handover.
Variation clauses and the 21-day window
Developers’ contracts commonly reserve wide rights to change the design, finishes, boundaries and community management statement. The statute sets the floor beneath those clauses.
If the seller learns that the disclosure statement was inaccurate, or would no longer be accurate if given now, it must give a further statement rectifying it at least 21 days before settlement: s 214(2). The buyer may then terminate if they would be materially prejudiced by being compelled to complete, given the extent of the inaccuracy, by written notice within 21 days after receiving the further statement or a longer agreed period: s 214(4). If the seller never gives the further statement, the buyer may still terminate before settlement on the same material prejudice test: s 214(6). The Land Sales Act has a parallel regime for the disclosure plan of a land lot: s 13.
A separate right arises when the scheme is registered. If the recorded community management statement differs from the proposed one most recently given to the buyer, or disclosed information is inaccurate, and the buyer would be materially prejudiced, the buyer may terminate by written notice given no later than the latest of 3 days before the buyer is otherwise required to complete, 14 days after notice that the scheme is established or changed, or another agreed day: s 217.
Material prejudice is a question of fact, and a person cannot contract out of, waive or limit rights under the Act: s 318. A review flags variation clauses that try to narrow these rights, and the 21-day window should be diarised the moment a further statement arrives.
Lot entitlements: a 30-day check
Where the seller is to be the original owner of the scheme, a buyer who reasonably believes the proposed contribution or interest schedule lot entitlements are inconsistent with the principle on which they are meant to be decided, and that they would be materially prejudiced, may terminate. The notice must be signed and dated, must say it is given under that section, and must be given no later than 30 days, or a longer agreed period, after the buyer or their representative receives the buyer’s copy of the contract: s 217A. That window opens as soon as the contract copy arrives, so it is easy to miss.
Sunset date and settlement timing
For a lot in a scheme, the disclosure statement must state the date by which the seller must settle under s 217B: s 213(2)(a)(iii). If the seller has not settled, other than because of the buyer’s default, by the earlier of the contract’s sunset date and 5 and a half years after the buyer entered the contract, or by 3 and a half years where the contract sets no such date, the buyer may terminate by signed written notice before settlement: s 217B. Each period moves to a later date if the buyer asked for one and the seller agreed.
Settlement also cannot be brought on too quickly. The contract is taken to include a term that settlement must not take place earlier than 14 days after the seller tells the buyer the scheme has been established or changed, and that term overrides the rest of the contract: s 212.
For a land lot, the seller must settle within 18 months after the buyer enters the contract, failing which the buyer may terminate by written notice before settlement unless the delay is the buyer’s own default: Land Sales Act 1984 (Qld) s 14(1) and (5). A land sunset clause cannot terminate automatically, and the seller may rely on it only with the buyer’s written consent after at least 28 days’ notice, a Supreme Court order, or in a way a regulation prescribes: s 19C and s 19D. Those restrictions sit in the Land Sales Act, so they do not extend to a lot in a community titles scheme. Our sunset clause article covers that regime.
Where the deposit sits
Money paid towards the purchase of a scheme lot before settlement, including under an option or expression of interest, must go directly to a law practice at its Queensland office or a real estate agent if the contract names one, otherwise the public trustee, and be held in a prescribed trust account: ss 218A and 218B. It stays there until a party becomes entitled to it, despite anything in the contract, and may be invested only with the contract’s authority or both parties’ signed consent: ss 218C and 218D. The Land Sales Act applies the same trust rule to land lots: s 17.
If a buyer of a scheme lot terminates under these statutory rights, the seller must repay amounts paid towards the purchase, with accrued interest, within 14 days, subject to the trust account rules: s 218. The Land Sales Act has the same rule for land lots: s 20.
Powers of attorney in the developer’s favour
Contracts often ask the buyer to appoint the seller as attorney, for example to sign documents needed to register the plan. The power may be used only in the ways and for the purposes set out in a detailed written statement given to the buyer beforehand, and it expires one year after the scheme is established or changed, if not sooner: s 219.
Cooling-off, finance and defects
A contract for the sale of residential property generally carries a cooling-off period of 5 business days, running from the day the buyer receives a copy signed by both parties (or the next business day, if that day is not one) and ending at 5pm on the fifth business day: Property Occupations Act 2014 (Qld) ss 160 and 166. The buyer can waive or shorten it in writing: s 167. If the buyer terminates within it, the seller may keep no more than a termination penalty of 0.25% of the purchase price from the deposit and must refund the rest within 14 days: ss 159 and 168. The period does not apply to some contracts, including where the buyer is purchasing at least 3 lots at the same time: s 160(1).
Finance and defects are left largely to the contract. Because settlement may be years away, lending and valuation are tested long after the price was agreed, so a review checks whether finance is a condition at all and when it must be satisfied. On defects, it checks for a pre-settlement inspection, how defects found then are handled, and any limit on the seller’s liability after settlement.
Published 26 October 2026.
Before you sign
The protection is statutory, but it is triggered by documents, notices and deadlines the buyer has to recognise. A review before signing identifies which Act applies, tests the disclosure against the contract, and marks when each right opens and closes.
The current text is on the Queensland Government’s legislation site, for the community titles disclosure provisions and the land sales provisions.
Related reading
- How Fraser Lawyers helps with off-the-plan purchases
- Sunset clauses in Queensland off-the-plan contracts
- The Form 2 seller disclosure statement
- Contact Fraser Lawyers
Need advice? The rights in an off-the-plan purchase turn on the kind of lot, the disclosure documents and deadlines that are easy to miss. If you have an off-the-plan contract in front of you, contact Fraser Lawyers to understand your rights and where you stand, with no obligation. |
This article is general information only and is not legal advice. Queensland law and the figures referred to can change, and every situation turns on its own facts. Contact Fraser Lawyers for advice specific to your circumstances.
If you would like to discuss your matter, you can book a consultation or call (07) 5554 6116.
