Contract of sale in Queensland: the seller disclosure statement, the cooling-off period, and what happens if it is wrong

Queensland rewrote the rules for selling property on 1 August 2025. That is the day the Property Law Act 2023 replaced the 1974 Act and brought in a seller disclosure scheme: before a buyer signs, the seller must give them a signed disclosure statement and a set of prescribed certificates, and a buyer who does not get them, or gets them wrong, can terminate the contract any time up to settlement. The cooling-off period, which sits in a different Act, did not change, but the two now interact in ways sellers need to understand.

This guide sets out what the Act and the Property Law Regulation 2024 actually require, in their own order: the disclosure documents, the exemptions, how and when they must be given, and the buyer's termination right. It then covers the cooling-off period under the Property Occupations Act 2014, what the standard REIQ contract's conditions do, who prepares what and what it costs, and the mistakes to avoid. Figures are as at September 2026 and the sources are listed at the end.

The rule: disclosure before the buyer signs

Section 99(1) of the Act says that before a contract for the sale of a lot is signed by the buyer, the seller must give the buyer "a statement (a disclosure statement) for the lot" and "each document prescribed by regulation (each a prescribed certificate) applicable to the lot". The statement must be in the approved form, which is Form 2, include the information the Regulation prescribes, be true at the time it is given, and be signed by the seller. It can be an electronic document with an electronic signature, and section 97 lets an authorised agent sign it and give it for the seller, which is why in Queensland the listing agent usually does.

Two things distinguish this from the southern states. Unlike New South Wales, Queensland does not require the contract itself to exist before you advertise; the disclosure documents must exist before anyone signs. And unlike Victoria's Section 32, the Queensland statement is a fixed form with a fixed list of questions rather than a lawyer-drafted document, so the risk is less in the drafting and more in getting a question wrong or missing a certificate.

The practical rule is the same everywhere, though: have the disclosure documents ready before the first open home. A buyer who wants to sign on the day cannot, lawfully, until they have them, and the title search, body corporate certificate and pool certificate all take time to come back.

What the disclosure statement must say

Section 8 of the Regulation lists the information Form 2 must contain. For a typical home:

• The basics. The seller's name, the property address, the lot-on-plan description, and whether the lot is in a community titles scheme or an older BUGTA scheme.
• Unregistered encumbrances. Anything the lot will remain subject to after settlement that is not on the title: an unregistered lease, including a residential tenancy (start and end dates, rent, bond, any option to renew), an unregistered easement, charge or mortgage the seller knows or should know about, resource-company access agreements, and "statutory encumbrances" such as a council's right to keep sewer pipes under the yard or a telecommunications carrier's right of entry.
• Zoning under the local planning scheme.
• Contamination and environment. Whether the property is on the environmental management register or the contaminated land register, and whether any environmental notices or orders apply.
• Trees, transport and resumption. Any application or order about a tree on the lot under the neighbourhood disputes legislation, any notice of a transport infrastructure proposal that would take part of the lot or change its dimensions, and any notice of intention to resume the lot.
• Heritage. Whether the lot is affected by the Queensland Heritage Act 1992 or is on the World Heritage List.
• Pool. Whether there is a regulated pool on the lot.
• Rates and water. The total on the most recent rate notice, without the prompt-payment discount, and the amount on the most recent water services notice or an estimate if none is issued separately.
• Tenanted property. If the property was under a residential tenancy or rooming accommodation agreement at any time in the 12 months before the buyer signs, the date of the last rent increase.

The form also carries warnings the Regulation prescribes in Schedule 1, including a list of matters the statement does not cover. Buyers are told, in effect, that flooding, structural condition, pests, building approvals and the current or historical use of the property are theirs to investigate.

The prescribed certificates

Section 5 of the Regulation lists the documents that must accompany the statement. Again for a typical home:

• A title search showing the interests registered on the lot, and a copy of the registered plan of survey.
• Owner-builder notice. If the seller must give a notice under section 47 of the Queensland Building and Construction Commission Act 1991, because owner-builder work was done on the property in the past six years, a copy of that notice.
• Enforcement and show-cause notices. A copy of any notice under sections 246AG, 247 or 248 of the Building Act 1975 or sections 167 or 168 of the Planning Act 2016 that is still in effect, and any notice or order from a "competent authority" requiring work to be done or money to be spent on the lot that is still in effect. Unapproved structures surface here.
• Environmental notices the seller must give under the Environmental Protection Act 1994 for contaminated land.
• Tree, transport and resumption documents. A copy of any document the seller received about the tree, transport-infrastructure and resumption matters disclosed in the statement.
• Pool. For a regulated pool, a pool safety certificate (or the equivalent building certificate or exemption notice), or a Form 36 notice under section 246ATM of the Building Act stating there is no certificate in effect.
• Units and townhouses. For a lot in a community titles scheme, a copy of the current community management statement and a body corporate certificate; for a BUGTA scheme, a body corporate certificate. If the body corporate advises in writing that it has no records from which to prepare one, or the scheme has no committee and no manager, an explanatory statement takes its place (sections 6 and 7).

Section 99(4) makes the point that a prescribed certificate may be a document already required under another Act, so the pool certificate and the owner-builder notice you would have had to give anyway now also count as disclosure documents.

Who is exempt

Section 100 lists the sales where the seller need not comply. The ones an ordinary seller might meet are:

• the buyer and seller are related (a parent, child, sibling, grandparent, spouse, aunt, uncle, cousin and so on, or a company the seller is a director or member of) and the buyer gives the seller a written waiver before signing. If there are several buyers, all of them must be related;
• the buyer is the State, the Commonwealth, a council, a statutory body, or a listed company or its subsidiary;
• the sale is between co-owners acquiring each other's interest, or between neighbours adjusting a common boundary;
• the contract gives effect to a court order, an enforcement warrant, or a Family Law Act financial agreement;
• the transfer is a deceased estate transmission to the executor or to a beneficiary under the will or intestacy rules (a sale by the executor to an outside buyer is not exempt);
• the contract results from exercising an option on which disclosure was already given; or
• the price is more than $10 million including GST and the buyer gives a written waiver.

Everything else, including a sale by a mortgagee in possession or an executor selling to the market, requires full disclosure. Section 98 makes any agreement to contract out of the division ineffective.

How and when the documents must be given

The documents can be handed over, posted, or given electronically (sections 101 and 102). Electronically means either attaching them to an email the buyer has agreed to receive, or giving the buyer a link with a statement that they may ask for a copy; a link only counts if the buyer could actually view and download the documents at the time and for a reasonable period afterwards. Posted documents are taken to arrive seven business days after posting unless earlier receipt is proved. The seller has the onus of proving the buyer was given the documents (section 101(3)), so agents keep the email and the acknowledgement.

At auction the contract is taken to be signed at the fall of the hammer. A registered bidder must have been given the documents before the auction starts; a bidder who registers after the start is covered only if the documents, or a notice with a link to them, were on display at the auction from start to finish (section 103). If you are selling at auction, the disclosure pack goes out with the bidder registration, not on the day.

If the disclosure is missing or wrong

Section 104 gives the buyer the right to terminate in two situations.

• Documents not given. If the seller failed to give the disclosure statement or any prescribed certificate before the buyer signed, the buyer may terminate by notice at any time before settlement. There is no requirement that the missing document mattered.
• Documents inaccurate or incomplete. If a statement or certificate was given but was inaccurate or incomplete about a material matter affecting the lot at the time it was given, and the buyer was not aware of the true position when they signed, and would not have signed had they known, the buyer may terminate at any time before settlement. Section 10 of the Regulation says the rates and water figures are not material matters, so a wrong rates total does not trigger this right.

The right does not apply where the failure is also a breach of another Act that already provides a consequence for it, such as a buyer's termination right under that Act. And where a certificate faithfully reproduces information a body corporate gave the seller and that information was wrong, section 106 makes termination under this division the buyer's only remedy against the seller.

On termination the seller must, within 14 days, repay everything the buyer paid towards the purchase, to the seller, the agent or anyone else under the contract, plus any interest it earned (section 105). The buyer can sue for it as a debt. For a seller that means a campaign lost weeks or months in, often after they have committed to buy elsewhere.

The cooling-off period

The cooling-off period lives in Part 7 of the Property Occupations Act 2014 and applies to every contract for the sale of residential property, including an option, except (section 160):

• a contract formed at auction on the fall of the hammer;
• a contract signed by 5pm on the second clear business day after the property was passed in at auction, with a bidder who was registered for that auction;
• a contract formed by exercising an option between the same parties;
• a buyer that is a listed company or its subsidiary, or the State or a statutory body; or
• a buyer purchasing three or more lots at the same time.

The period is five business days. It starts on the day the buyer receives a copy of the contract signed by both parties, or the next business day if that falls on a weekend or public holiday, and ends at 5pm on the fifth business day (section 166). Because Queensland contracts are usually signed by the buyer first as an offer and then by the seller as acceptance, the clock starts when the buyer gets the fully signed copy back, not when they made the offer.

The buyer may terminate during the period by giving the seller a signed notice. The seller may then deduct a termination penalty of 0.25% of the purchase price from the deposit and must refund the balance within 14 days; failing to refund is an offence carrying up to 200 penalty units, which at the 2026-27 penalty unit of $172.70 is $34,540 (section 168). On a $750,000 sale the penalty the buyer forfeits is $1,875.

The buyer can waive or shorten the period simply by written notice to the seller (section 167). Unlike New South Wales, no lawyer's certificate is required. That is how a Queensland buyer makes an unconditional offer in a competitive private-treaty sale.

The contract the buyer is first given for signing must carry the statutory warning, in these words or words to like effect, once, immediately above the buyer's signature: "The contract may be subject to a 5 business day statutory cooling-off period. A termination penalty of 0.25% of the purchase price applies if the buyer terminates the contract during the statutory cooling-off period. It is recommended the buyer obtain an independent property valuation and independent legal advice about the contract and his or her cooling-off rights, before signing." Leaving it out is an offence by whoever gave the buyer the contract, seller or agent, with the same 200-penalty-unit maximum (section 165). The REIQ form prints it.

The two regimes run separately. A buyer who lets the cooling-off period lapse can still terminate months later under section 104 of the Property Law Act if the disclosure was defective, and pays no 0.25% for doing so.

What the standard contract does

Almost every Queensland home is sold on the form published jointly by the Real Estate Institute of Queensland and the Queensland Law Society. From 1 August 2025 that is the Contract for Sale and Purchase of Residential Real Estate, first edition, which replaced the separate contracts for houses and residential land (19th edition) and for lots in a community titles scheme (15th edition). The agent usually fills in the reference schedule; the standard conditions are printed, and changes to them are made by special condition. Three of those conditions decide most disputes.

• Risk. The property is at the buyer's risk from 5pm on the first business day after the contract date. Buyers insure the day they sign. Separately, section 77 of the Property Law Act lets a buyer rescind, whatever the contract says, if the dwelling is damaged so badly it is unfit for occupation before settlement or possession.
• Finance. The finance condition only works if the reference schedule states an amount, a financier and a finance date. Leave a field blank and the contract may be unconditional on finance.
• Building and pest. The contract is subject to the buyer obtaining satisfactory building and pest reports by the inspection date, commonly set seven to fourteen days after the contract date. Miss the date without giving notice and the condition may be treated as satisfied.

Settlement is whatever the reference schedule says; 30 days is the common choice, longer if the buyer is selling first. If the settlement date lands on a non-business day, section 78 of the Act moves it to the next business day. A deposit is customarily paid in two parts, an initial deposit on signing and a balance deposit when the contract goes unconditional, held in the agent's or a solicitor's trust account. These are conventions, not law; your contract can say otherwise.

Who prepares what, and what it costs

In Queensland the listing agent typically prepares both the contract and the Form 2, ordering the title search, plan, pool certificate and body corporate certificate on the seller's behalf; some sellers have their solicitor do it instead, which is the safer course where there is an unapproved structure, a tenant, an estate or a contaminated-land history. The searches and certificates for a standard house usually run to $200 to $700, and the seller's conveyancing through to settlement to $800 to $2,500 in professional fees plus disbursements. Those are the ranges in our cost-of-selling tables. A body corporate certificate and a pool inspection are separate fees, and the conveyancing guide covers choosing between a conveyancer and a solicitor.

The mistakes that catch sellers out

• Signing before disclosure. The buyer at the first open home wants to write an offer and the Form 2 is not ready. Under section 104 that contract can be terminated up to settlement. Order the pack the day you list.
• The tenant. A residential tenancy is an unregistered encumbrance and must be disclosed with its dates, rent and bond, and the date of the last rent increase in the past year. Investors selling with a tenant in place get this wrong more than any other item.
• Unapproved work. An enforcement notice still in effect must be attached; a deck or carport without approval invites one. Tell your agent and solicitor about everything built since you bought.
• The pool. No safety certificate and no Form 36 notice attached means the pack is incomplete. Book the pool inspector when you book the photographer.
• A stale pack. The statement must be true when it is given. A body corporate certificate from a campaign that stalled in autumn may not show the special levy struck in winter; a new notice from council changes the answers. Re-check before each new buyer signs.
• No proof of delivery. The onus is on the seller. Emailed documents with an acknowledgement beat a pack left on the kitchen bench.
• Auction day. Registered bidders must have the documents before the auction starts. A pack handed out at registration ten minutes before is fine; one emailed that evening is not.

If you are the buyer: five things to check

1. Title and plan. Does the registered owner match the seller, and does the plan match the fences? Read every registered easement and covenant, not just the notation.
2. The unregistered encumbrances box. A tenancy running past your move-in date, a sewer under the back yard, a resource-company access agreement. These bind you after settlement.
3. Notices and orders. Any enforcement or show-cause notice, tree order, transport proposal or resumption notice. Each one changes what the property is worth to you.
4. Body corporate certificate. Levies, the sinking fund balance, special levies, insurance, and any disputes or planned works.
5. What is not covered. Flooding, structural soundness, pests and building approvals are yours to check. Use the building and pest condition and the cooling-off period to do it.

Our building and pest inspection guide and due diligence checklist cover what to order, and the Queensland stamp duty guide covers what the government will charge you.

Where this fits in the sale

The disclosure pack and the contract are the first paperwork in a Queensland sale, and they have to exist before the first offer. Our guide to how to sell a house in Australia covers the campaign end to end, auction versus private treaty covers which method suits your market, and the Queensland commission guide covers what an agent will charge. How Queensland's cooling-off period compares with the other states is in the cooling-off period by state guide. If you want an agent who sells in your suburb to give you a figure first, request a free appraisal. Selling interstate? See the equivalent guides for the NSW contract of sale and the Victorian Section 32.

Sources

• Property Law Act 2023 (Qld), Part 7 Division 2 (sections 74 to 78) and Division 4 (sections 95 to 107), current as at 28 April 2026: legislation.qld.gov.au. Quotations are from section 99(1).
• Property Law Regulation 2024 (Qld), sections 5 to 10 and Schedule 1, current as at 1 September 2026: legislation.qld.gov.au.
• Property Occupations Act 2014 (Qld), Part 7 (sections 159 to 168), current as at 1 August 2025: legislation.qld.gov.au. The cooling-off warning is quoted from section 165(2).
• Queensland Government, seller disclosure scheme (Form 2 and the guide to the scheme): qld.gov.au; cooling-off period for residential property contracts: qld.gov.au.
• Queensland penalty unit, $172.70 from 1 July 2026: Penalties and Sentences (Penalty Unit Value) Amendment Regulation 2026, as reported by Queensland Law Society Proctor.
• REIQ and Queensland Law Society, Contract for Sale and Purchase of Residential Real Estate (1st edition, for use from 1 August 2025): Queensland Law Society and Proctor, July 2025. Standard-condition descriptions are paraphrased; settlement and deposit practice are conventions, not requirements.
• Preparation and search costs: the Queensland lines of our cost-of-selling data, sourced to the Queensland Government seller disclosure page above; ranges are typical fees, not quotes.