The window, state by state
Read each row from left to right, as the days run: offers before the auction, the auction itself, then a contract signed after the home is passed in. A cell marked “not covered here” is one the official pages read for this guide do not address.
State
Before the auction
At the auction
After it passes in
NSW
A pre-auction bid is negotiated the same way as a private sale.
No cooling-off for anyone who buys at auction.
No cooling-off where contracts are exchanged the same day, after the pass-in.
Victoria
No cooling-off if an offer is accepted less than three clear business days before the auction date.
No cooling-off at a public auction.
No cooling-off for a purchase within three clear business days after a public auction.
Queensland
Not covered here.
A sale by auction is exempt from cooling-off.
No cooling-off for a private treaty contract made within 2 business days of an unsuccessful auction with a buyer who was a registered bidder.
South Australia
A successful offer before the auction does carry cooling-off, unless the buyer waives it, which needs an independent legal practitioner to sign a prescribed form.
No cooling-off at auctions.
No cooling-off for a contract made on the auction day by someone who bid, or had a bid made for them.
ACT
Not covered here.
No cooling-off for a home sold by auction.
No cooling-off for a contract made the same day with a buyer recorded in the bidders record as a bidder, or as someone a bidder bid for.
Northern Territory
Not covered here.
The auction contract is unconditional, with no cooling-off.
Not covered here.
Western Australia sits outside the table: its consumer protection agency points out that real estate contracts made in WA carry no mandatory cooling-off period, by any method. Tasmania is not covered here.
Counting the days
The windows are counted in business days, and the words matter. Victoria’s are “clear” business days, counted back from the auction date and forward from the auction. Queensland’s window runs within 2 business days of the auction, and its exemption list puts the cut-off at 5pm on the second business day. In NSW and South Australia the line is the auction day itself.
Which days count for your sale is a question for the conveyancer or solicitor who prepares your contract.
What this means on the seller’s side
The official pages describe what an auction gives the seller in exchange. At a Victorian auction the contract is unconditional, and the buyer cannot make it subject to finance or inspection; the buyer pays the deposit on signing. The Northern Territory’s page describes an auction contract the same way. In NSW the successful bidder signs and pays you a deposit on the spot, usually 10% of the price unless a smaller sum or a deposit bond was agreed before the auction. In South Australia, auction conditions are generally a 10% deposit and settlement in 30 days.
Bidders see those terms before the day. In Victoria the rules and conditions must be available for public inspection a reasonable time before the auction, and in any case at least 30 minutes before it starts; in Queensland the auctioneer discloses your conditions of sale.
Pre-auction offers are handled differently. In Victoria, a buyer whose offer you accept less than three clear business days before the auction date gets no cooling-off. Victoria also treats pre-auction offers as a private sale, so if your agent had already published your reserve before the offer arrived, you can accept it even though the reserve has not been published for the full 7 days. South Australia keeps the buyer’s cooling-off for a successful pre-auction offer unless it is waived.
Not to be confused with your own cooling-off
Everything above is the buyer’s right on the sale contract. A seller can have a separate right on the agency agreement signed with an agent, and the two never mix.
- NSW, agency agreement. Every agency agreement for selling residential property or rural land has a cooling-off period, which runs from signing until 5pm on the following business day or Saturday, whichever comes first. You can waive it only if the agent gave you the unsigned agreement and the approved guide at least 1 business day before you signed, and you signed the approved waiver form first.
- Victoria, sales authority. Consumer Affairs Victoria says you have no cooling-off period after signing a sales authority.