Legal Tip 45: Avoid Agreeing to Settle a Property on a Friday

Avoid Agreeing to Settle a Property on a Friday


Sometimes people run into problems with a property settlement and it has to go over to the next day. When you agree to settle on a friday the next business day is monday so a simple problem can cause a 3 day wait. This often leads to disappointment with people unable to move in when they wanted.If you book the removalists for a saturday after a friday settlement then you will be in for costs if they cannot deposit your belongings somewhere.


To avoid having to settle on a friday all you have to do is look at the contract and see what day the settlement will fall on and the change it before the parties agree. If you sign in NSW on a standard 42 day settlement then settlement will occur on the same day of the week that you sign. So it would be easy to make a 40 day settlement or a 45 day settlement to avoid the Friday.



Also, as I have mentioned before, don’t assume a settlement will happen. Sometimes they don’t.

 

Yes, and also avoid settlements on Fridays because it can be too busy, with everybody planning to move in on a weekend.

I like to be safe/minimise risk. My additional thoughts are, if you need to transfer money to your solicitors trust account to cover any shortfall of funds for settlement, I like to have that prepared and transferred a day or 2 in advance. Therefore I also think avoid having settlement on Mondays so your funds stay in your hands for longer (rather than in the solicitors trust account over a weekend). Its a few days of interest... I'm not confident the money will transfer immediately/something could go wrong and I don't want to fail settlement so I think doing the transfer of money on the Monday itself is a bit of a risk for a Monday settlement.

But does anybody else has an alternative solution, to make this a non issue?

 

settlement mid day is good too as sometimes a small problem can be rectified and it could settle later that day. If the settlement was booked for 4pm it would have to go over to the next day.

 

All of my properties have settled on Fridays, deliberately booked them that way as its when they're less busy

 

Do you do your own settlements? If not why does it matter how busy it is??

 

@Terry_w for the settlement date or day in NSW, is this can be negotiated via the buyer or the seller legal team?

 

Yes. All contracts are negotiable