New REIQ residential contracts, January 2022

The two contracts

The releases were the Contract for Houses and Residential Land, 17th edition, and the Contract for Residential Lots in a Community Title Scheme, 13th edition.

These are the standard forms used in the overwhelming majority of Queensland residential sales, so a change to them affects almost every transaction.

What changed

• Settlement extensions, clause 6.2. Either party gained the ability to obtain a short extension of the settlement date where they cannot complete because of the inaction or delay of their financier, or for another reason. This addressed a persistent problem where a bank was not ready and the party was technically in default through no fault of their own.
• Smoke alarms, clause 7.8. A new clause responding to the smoke alarm requirements that took effect on 1 January 2022, imposing a contractual obligation on the seller to install compliant alarms. That turned a statutory obligation into something the buyer could enforce under the contract.
• Pool compliance. Sellers must hand over a Pool Compliance Certificate at settlement for any non-shared pool on the property. The only way out is giving the buyer a Notice of No Pool Safety Certificate before the contract is signed.
• Deposit grace period. An express provision covering deposits paid by direct debit, addressing delays between a payment being made and the funds arriving in the account. Before this, a bank processing delay could put a buyer in breach.

What has happened since

Two things have moved since this article was first published, and both matter more than the 2022 changes did.

The standard contracts have been revised again, so check which edition you are actually signing rather than assuming it is the one described here.

More significantly, the seller disclosure scheme under the Property Law Act 2023 (Qld) commenced on 1 August 2025. A seller must now give the buyer a disclosure statement in the approved form, together with prescribed certificates, before the buyer signs the contract. If that is not done, or the statement is materially inaccurate and the buyer was unaware, the buyer may terminate at any time before settlement.

That is a substantial shift in where the risk sits, and it applies to every residential sale. Our page on selling your home sets out what the scheme requires.

Before you sign

Standard contracts are revised because problems keep arising in practice. That is a good reason to have any contract reviewed before you commit rather than after.

Once you sign, you are bound, and the cooling off period for a Queensland residential contract is 5 business days with a penalty for terminating within it.

If you have questions about how a contract term affects you, contact our property team on 07 5522 5777 or start with our buying a home page.