The cooling-off period in South Australia, explained

Two clear business days. That is the cooling-off period on a private treaty sale of land in South Australia, and if you use it, the most the vendor can keep is $100.

The part worth reading carefully is when those two days start, because the clock is not pinned to your signature. It runs from whichever came later, the day the contract was made or the day the Form 1 was served on you.

Everything below comes from section 5 of the Land and Business (Sale and Conveyancing) Act 1994 (SA), at the version in force from 15 January 2026, and from Form 1 in the Land and Business (Sale and Conveyancing) Regulations 2025, which replaced the 2010 regulations on 1 September 2025.

When the clock starts

Section 5(8) sets the deadline, which the Act calls the "prescribed time", and it splits two ways.

Form 1 served before the contract was made: you have until the end of the second clear business day after the day the contract was made.

Form 1 served after the contract was made: you have until the end of the second clear business day from the day the statement was served.

Either way the right also ends at settlement, if settlement comes sooner. SA.GOV.AU puts it in a line: the period "begins when you receive the vendor's statement (Form 1) or from the date the contract of sale was signed, whichever happens last" (Offers, auctions and buying off the plan).

That catches out anyone who has bought in Victoria. Your Form 1 does not have to reach you before you sign, and often it does not. Section 7(1) only requires it at least 10 clear days before settlement, so a contract signed on Monday with the Form 1 arriving Thursday gives you until the end of the second clear business day counted from that Thursday. What belongs in the document is covered in our guide to the Form 1 vendor disclosure statement.

A late Form 1 works in your favour

Part B of the Form 1 carries a clause most buyers never read. If the form "is not served on you at least 2 clear business days before the time at which settlement takes place, the cooling-off notice may be served at any time before settlement". A vendor who is slow with disclosure hands you a right that stays open until settlement, so check the date your Form 1 was actually served before you accept that the window has closed.

Counting the days

"Clear" means the triggering day does not count. Business days exclude weekends and public holidays, and it is the South Australian calendar that governs, not the Victorian one. The two lists do not match. South Australia takes Labour Day in early October, Monday 5 October in 2026, where Victoria took its Labour Day back in March, on Monday 9 March 2026. Count on the wrong calendar and you can be a day out.

Say you sign on Friday 2 October 2026, with the Form 1 already served.

1. Friday 2 October, the day the contract was made. Does not count.
2. Saturday and Sunday. Not business days.
3. Monday 5 October is Labour Day in South Australia. Not a business day either.
4. Tuesday 6 October is the first clear business day.
5. Wednesday 7 October is the second. Your notice has to be in by then.

Five calendar days to get two business days.

How to actually withdraw

Section 5(1) lets you rescind by giving the vendor written notice, before the prescribed time, of your intention not to be bound. No reason required. Form 1 Part B is blunt about the form it takes: the notice "must be in writing and must be signed by you". Telling the agent on the phone does nothing.

Section 5(2) sets out where it can go:

• To the vendor personally.
• By registered post to the vendor's last known address, counting as given when posted.
• By fax or email to a number or address the vendor gave you for that purpose, counting as given at the time of transmission.
• Where an agent is authorised to act for the vendor, by leaving it with a person apparently responsible to the agent at the agent's address for service, or posting it there by registered post.

Then the sting. Under section 5(3), if a court has to decide whether notice was given, the onus of proving it lies on you. The Form 1 recommends getting written acknowledgment if you leave it with the agent, or keeping the transmission record if you send it by email. Do both, and tell your conveyancer the same day.

What happens to your deposit

Under section 5(4), if you rescind you get back every dollar paid under the contract except money paid for an option and except a deposit that did not exceed $100.

Section 5(5) goes further. A vendor or stakeholder who, before the prescribed time, demands payment from a land purchaser of anything beyond option money or a deposit of $100 is guilty of an offence. The Act allows a larger figure to be set by regulation, and the 2025 Regulations do not set one.

So cooling off here is close to free. No forfeiture, no percentage penalty. You are out at most $100, plus what you already spent on inspections and searches.

One limit. The $100 cap only bites while a cooling-off right is on foot. At auction there is none, so the usual deposit applies, and SA.GOV.AU notes auction conditions are generally a 10 per cent deposit with a 30-day settlement.

Where you get no cooling-off period at all

Section 5(7) lists the exclusions and Form 1 Part B repeats them. You have no cooling-off right where:

• You bought at auction.
• The land was offered but not sold at auction, and you (or someone bidding for you) enter into the contract on the same day as the auction.
• Before entering the contract you received independent advice from a legal practitioner who signed the prescribed certificate.
• You are a body corporate and the land is not residential land.
• The sale is by tender, with the contract made at least 5 clear business days after tenders closed and at least 2 clear business days after the Form 1 was served.
• The contract is made by exercising an option granted at least 5 clear business days earlier, with the Form 1 served at least 2 clear business days earlier.
• The land contract also provides for the sale of a business that is not a small business.

Read the fourth one twice, because it is easy to read backwards. Section 5(7)(a) shuts out a body corporate only "in the case of a contract for the sale of land other than residential land". So a company buying a house in South Australia does have cooling-off rights. Victoria is the opposite.

Note the third one too. That certificate is Form 3 Part A in the regulations, and a legal practitioner has to sign it. A registered conveyancer cannot, so we cannot sign it for you.

Buying at auction also costs you the ability to make the contract conditional on finance or a building report, so both have to be sorted beforehand. Make a successful offer before the auction and the position flips: SA.GOV.AU confirms cooling off applies to a pre-auction offer unless you waive it with that practitioner's certificate.

Sellers get nothing, and an agent cannot lawfully be paid commission if the buyer cools off (SA.GOV.AU, Selling your home). Section 23(2) carries the one exception worth knowing: if the same parties go on to sign a fresh contract for the same property, commission can be payable on that later contract.

When an amended Form 1 restarts your two days

Section 10 requires the vendor's statement to be accurate as at the date of service. If circumstances change after service but before you sign, the statement is treated as defective until a notice of amendment is served, and it is then presumed served, as amended, on the date of that notice. That matters most when the notice reaches you after you have signed, because the statement then counts as served on the date of the notice and your two clear business days run again from there. SA.GOV.AU puts the same point from the seller's side: an amendment "gives them a further 2 clear business days from service of the amended notice".

What an amendment does not give you is an exit. Where the Form 1 is defective or was never served, section 15 makes you apply to a court and satisfy it you were prejudiced before it will avoid the contract or award damages. That is litigation, so it is solicitor's work rather than conveyancing. Victoria is not the same. There, section 32K of the Sale of Land Act 1962 lets a buyer rescind directly, with no court application, at any time before they accept title. In South Australia the court comes first.

South Australia and Victoria, side by side

We are licensed in Victoria and registered in South Australia, and we see buyers move between the two expecting the rules to travel with them.

Victorian figures are from Consumer Affairs Victoria and its page on property deposits, which says plainly that no law sets the deposit amount there. There is more in our post on the Victorian cooling-off period. The money line lands hardest. On a $750,000 purchase, cooling off in South Australia costs $100. The same decision in Victoria costs $1,500.

Questions we get asked

Does my two days start when I sign, or when the Form 1 arrives?

Whichever is later. Served before the contract was made, the clock runs from the day after the contract date. Served afterwards, it runs from the day after service. Check the date on the form rather than going by memory.

Can I cool off because my finance fell through?

You do not need a reason inside the two days, so yes. After the window closes, your position depends on whether the contract was made subject to finance and how that clause is worded. Send us the contract and we will read the condition with you. If it has already become a dispute with the vendor, that needs a solicitor.

The agent says the vendor will not accept my notice. What now?

A valid notice rescinds the contract by operation of the Act, and the vendor agreeing is not part of the test. What matters is that it was in writing, signed by you, and served by one of the methods in section 5(2) before the prescribed time. Keep your proof of service and call us the same day.

Talk to us before you sign

Cooling off is a safety net, and a cheap one here. It is still a worse outcome than reading the Form 1 properly in the first place, because by the time you are counting business days you have already committed.

We are registered in South Australia with Consumer and Business Services and we act for buyers on South Australian purchases from our office in Cranbourne, Victoria. South Australian conveyancing runs electronically, with settlement and lodgement handled in an online workspace, so a registered conveyancer can act for you wherever the property is. We are open Monday to Friday, and on weekends by appointment.

Send the contract and the Form 1 through and ask us for a quote, or get in touch if you would rather talk it through first.

This article is general information about South Australian conveyancing and is not legal advice for your particular transaction. Speak to us about your specific circumstances.