The cooling-off period in Victoria: three business days, and the six times it does not apply

A client once rang me on a Monday afternoon, pleased with himself. He had signed a contract on the previous Wednesday, “slept on it over the weekend” and decided the house was wrong. He wanted to use his cooling-off right.

The period had expired at the end of business on Monday. He was ringing at 4.40 pm. We got the notice to the agent at 4.52 pm.

Eight minutes. That is how much margin the cooling-off period gives you if you do not understand how it is counted. So let me explain it properly.

What the right actually is

Section 31 of the Sale of Land Act 1962 lets a purchaser of land end the contract by giving written notice to the vendor or the vendor’s agent within three clear business days after signing.

If you do it in time, the vendor keeps $100 or 0.2% of the purchase price, whichever is greater, and must refund the rest of your deposit within 14 days. On a $900,000 house, cooling off costs you $1,800. On a $2 million house, $4,000. The contract is otherwise at an end and the vendor has no further claim against you.

That is the entire right. It is short, it is cheap, and it is strictly counted.

How “three clear business days” is counted

The word that matters is clear. Three clear business days means three full business days that do not include the day you signed, and do not include weekends or public holidays.

• ThursdayYou sign at 2 pm. This day does not count.
• FridayDay 1.
• Sat / SunNot business days. The clock stops.
• MondayDay 2.
• TuesdayDay 3. Notice must be received by the end of the day.
• WednesdayToo late. You are bound.

Two things people get wrong about that calendar:

• A public holiday extends it. If the Monday is a public holiday, Day 2 moves to Tuesday and Day 3 to Wednesday.
• The day of signing never counts, even if you signed at 8 am.

The notice must be in writing and it must reach the vendor or the vendor’s agent within the period. We send it by email with a read receipt and follow up by phone so there is no argument about receipt.

The six situations where there is no cooling-off at all

This is the part of section 31 that catches people, because the right sounds universal and is not.

1. You bought at a publicly advertised auction. Auction purchases are final from the fall of the hammer. That is the point of an auction.
2. You bought within three clear business days before or after a publicly advertised auction. This is the one buyers miss. If the property was advertised for auction on Saturday and you make a successful offer on the Wednesday before, or the Tuesday after, there is no cooling off. The vendor's agent knows this. You should too, because "pre-auction offer" is a common way to move a buyer who is still deciding.
3. The property is used primarily for commercial or industrial purposes. A shop with a flat above it is a question of degree; a warehouse is not.
4. The land is more than 20 hectares and used primarily for farming.
5. You previously signed a contract for the same land on substantially the same terms. You cannot cool off, re-sign and cool off again.
6. You are an estate agent, or a company (or buying through one), or you received independent legal advice from a legal practitioner before signing. Professional buyers, corporate buyers and advised buyers do not get the safety net.

Number six is worth pausing on. If you send us the contract, we advise you on it, and you then sign, you have given up your cooling-off right by taking the advice. Most of the time that is exactly right: the advice is more valuable than three days of second-guessing, and it is why vendors prefer advised buyers. But if what you want is a review and a way out, the sequence has to be: sign, then review inside the three days. Tell us which you want and we will run it that way.

Cooling off is not a substitute for conditions

The cooling-off period is a right to change your mind, at a price, for three days. It is not a finance clause, a building inspection clause or a due diligence period.

If you need your loan approved, your contract needs a subject to finance condition with a date. If you want a building and pest inspection to be able to end the contract, it needs a subject to inspection condition, and you should know that the standard form only lets you terminate for a major structural defect or a major pest infestation, not for a long list of minor items. None of that is replaced by section 31.

What is about to change

The Consumer Legislation Amendment Act 2026 does not touch section 31, but it changes what happens around it. For auctions and fixed-date sales, the section 32 vendor statement will have to be available at least 14 days before the sale (and 14 days before signing for other sales) once the Sale of Land Act amendments commence, which is by 1 June 2027 at the latest. That gives a buyer the review time that cooling off was never really designed to provide. I have written about those changes here.

What to do

• Before you sign anything, ask one question: is there an auction advertised for this property? If yes, assume there is no cooling off and get the contract reviewed first.
• If you sign a private sale contract, write the end of the cooling-off period on it in pen. Count the days properly. Check for public holidays.
• If you are going to cool off, do it in writing, early in the period, to the agent and the vendor’s lawyer. Do not leave it until 4.40 pm on the last day. Not everyone picks up.