For agents
AML Reliance
Under contract
Once the contract is signed, selling shifts from a marketing exercise into a legal one. You've made promises to the buyer — in the warranties you've given and the disclosures attached to the contract — and now the job is to honour them, satisfy any outstanding conditions, and steer the sale through to settlement without giving the buyer a reason to walk away. Getting this right protects both your price and your settlement date.
What goes wrong here is rarely dramatic: usually a warranty that turns out inaccurate, a compliance certificate never obtained, or a buyer who can't settle on time — any of which can delay settlement, trigger a price adjustment, or let the contract be rescinded.
| What has to happen | |
|---|---|
| 1. Contract signed | You're bound. Cooling-off starts running if it applies |
| 2. Cooling-off ends | Expires, or the buyer waives it. In NSW that's a section 66W certificate |
| 3. Unconditional | Every condition satisfied or waived in writing — finance approved, building and pest accepted. In NSW you're generally here already, since conditions are settled before contracts exchange |
| 4. Discharge lodged | Your bank starts releasing its mortgage — this takes longer than people expect |
| 5. Settlement | Title transfers, money moves, keys change hands |
Steps 3 and 4 are where timelines can slip. Both depend on someone else's timetable.
Who carries the risk if the house burns down between signing and settlement depends on where you are. In New South Wales and Victoria it stays with you until settlement. In Queensland, under the standard REIQ contract, it passes to the buyer at 5pm on the first business day after the contract date.
That sounds like a Queensland seller can cancel cover early. Don't. Keep your policy running through to settlement wherever you are — the seller's insurance can end up being what protects the buyer too, and cancelling early to save a few weeks' premium is a poor trade against a total loss.
Most of this stage happens without you doing much, which is the point. Your conveyancer chases the conditions, gets the discharge moving with your bank, prepares the adjustments, and tells you what's actually on track versus what's being described as on track.
Zettle handles it on a fixed fee, known before you start, with the app open at 9pm if that's when you think of a question. Just Zettle it.