The cooling-off period in Victoria, explained

You get three clear business days to change your mind after you sign, and it costs you the greater of $100 or 0.2 per cent of the purchase price to use them. That is the short answer.

The longer answer matters, because the counting is stricter than people expect and there is a list of situations where you get no cooling-off period at all. Sign at a Saturday auction in Cranbourne East and you have none. Sign on the Thursday before it and you also have none, which almost nobody knows until too late.

Everything below comes from section 31 of the Sale of Land Act 1962, at Version 174, in force from 9 September 2026.

How the three days are actually counted

The Act gives you until "the expiration of three clear business days after" you sign (s 31(2)). Two words in that phrase do a lot of work.

"Clear" means the day you sign does not count, and "business day" means any day except a Saturday, Sunday, or a day observed as a public holiday throughout Victoria. That definition is in section 30 of the Act, not left to common sense.

The clock also runs from your signature, not the vendor's. Consumer Affairs Victoria puts it plainly: the period "begins from the date you sign the contract, not from the date the seller signs it" (Buying property by private sale). So a vendor who sits on the paperwork for a week is not eating into your window.

A worked example

Say you sign on a Thursday afternoon for a townhouse in Clyde North.

1. Thursday, the day you sign. Does not count.
2. Friday is day one.
3. Saturday and Sunday are not business days. Nothing happens.
4. Monday is day two.
5. Tuesday is day three. Your notice has to be in by then.

Shift that to the Friday before a long weekend, with a Monday public holiday. Day one is Tuesday, day three is Thursday. Six calendar days for the same three business days.

One honest complication. The Act says "before the expiration of" the third business day and does not name a time of day. You will hear agents say 5pm. That is convention, not the statute. If you are cooling off, tell your conveyancer on the morning of day one, not the afternoon of day three.

How to actually withdraw

This is the part people get wrong, because they ring the agent and assume a phone call counts. It does not. Section 31(2) requires a notice you have signed, and section 31(3) is specific about where it can go.

The notice has to be given, within three clear business days of you signing, to one of these people:

1. The vendor.
2. An agent of the vendor.
3. An estate agent engaged or appointed by the vendor to sell the land.

Or it has to be left at one of these addresses:

1. The address for service of the vendor set out in the contract.
2. The address of the vendor's agent.
3. The address of the estate agent engaged or appointed to sell the land.

You do not have to give a reason, and the vendor cannot refuse it. A valid notice ends the contract by operation of the Act. There is no negotiation and no approval step.

You do not need a formally drafted document. A signed written notice saying you wish to terminate under section 31 will do it. What matters is that it is signed, it reaches the right person or address, and it gets there inside the window. We serve these for clients and keep proof of delivery, because any argument that follows is about timing.

What it costs to walk away

If you cool off properly, you are entitled to the return of all money you paid under the contract, except for a sum the vendor can keep. Section 31(4) sets that sum at $100 or 0.2 per cent of the purchase price, whichever is the greater.

Read that twice, because it is routinely reported the wrong way around. It is the greater, not the lesser. On any normal house price in the corridor the percentage wins and the $100 is irrelevant.

Purchase price	0.2 per cent of the price	What the vendor may keep
$45,000 (a small vacant block)	$90	$100, because $100 is the greater
$650,000	$1,300	$1,300
$850,000	$1,700	$1,700

The $100 floor only bites on very cheap land. For a $650,000 purchase in Botanic Ridge, cooling off costs $1,300 and the rest of your deposit comes back.

When you have no cooling-off period at all

Some of these are obvious. Others are not, and the auction ones are the reason people end up stuck in a contract they thought they could exit.

Situation	Cooling off?	Source
Bought at a publicly advertised auction	No	s 31(5)(a)
Signed within three clear business days before the auction day	No	s 31(5)(b)(i)
Signed on the auction day	No	s 31(5)(b)(ii)
Signed within three clear business days after the auction day	No	s 31(5)(b)(iii)
You and the vendor already signed a contract for the same land on substantially the same terms	No	s 31(5)(c)
The buyer is an estate agent, or a corporate body	No	s 31(5)(d)
Land used primarily for industrial or commercial purposes	No	s 31(1)(a)
Land over 20 hectares used primarily for farming	No	s 31(1)(b)

The auction blackout, in plain terms

Victorian auctions mostly run on Saturdays. Work the exclusion through and you get a dead zone that runs from the Wednesday to the following Wednesday.

Three clear business days before a Saturday auction are the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, so a pre-auction offer signed on any of those days has no cooling-off period. Three clear business days after are the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. If the property passes in on the Saturday and you sign on the Monday, you have none either.

Sign in that window and the contract is final the moment you sign, which is exactly why the contract has to be reviewed before you put your name on it rather than after. That is what our pre-signing contract review is for, and the week before a Saturday auction is exactly when you want it done.

Buying in a company name

Section 31(5)(d) removes the cooling-off right entirely if the buyer is a corporate body. Plenty of investors in the corridor buy through a company without realising they give up this protection at the same time.

Whether you should buy in a company, a trust or your own name is not a conveyancing question, and we will not pretend otherwise. It turns on tax and asset protection, so it belongs with your accountant or a solicitor. We can only tell you the conveyancing consequence. Settle the structure before you sign anything.

Off-the-plan and house-and-land

The industrial, commercial and farming carve-outs turn on how the land is used, not on whether a house is standing on it yet. An off-the-plan townhouse in a new Clyde or Lyndhurst estate still gets the normal cooling-off period if you bought it by private sale.

The clause that has to be in your contract

Section 31(6) says a contract the section applies to must carry a conspicuous notice telling you that you can terminate within three clear business days of signing.

If that notice is missing, section 31(7) gives you far more than a three-day window. You may rescind at any time before you become entitled to possession or to the receipt of rents and profits. A conveyancer checks for that clause as a matter of routine.

Section 31(8) closes the loop. Any provision in the contract, or in any other document, that excludes, modifies or restricts your cooling-off right is void and of no effect. If an agent hands you a form asking you to waive your cooling-off rights, that document does nothing.

What to actually do with your three days

Cooling off is a safety net. It is also an expensive way to discover something a contract review would have caught first.

If you are already inside the window, get the section 32 vendor statement in front of your conveyancer today. Easements, owners corporation liabilities, planning overlays and outstanding notices all live in that document, and any of them can legitimately change your mind.

The better version is simpler. Send the contract and the section 32 to us before you sign. Three business days is not much time to organise a building inspection, a finance answer and a title review, and the $1,300 you keep by not cooling off on a $650,000 purchase stays in your pocket.

Questions we get asked

Do I get my deposit back if I cool off?

Yes, less the amount the vendor is entitled to retain. Section 31(4) entitles you to the return of all money paid under the contract except the greater of $100 or 0.2 per cent of the purchase price. On a $650,000 purchase that means $1,300 stays with the vendor and the balance of your deposit comes back to you.

I made an offer before the auction and it was accepted. Do I have a cooling-off period?

Almost certainly not. If the land is sold within three clear business days before a publicly advertised auction, on the auction day, or within three clear business days after it, section 31(5)(b) removes the cooling-off right. For a Saturday auction that covers the Wednesday through to the following Wednesday. Treat a pre-auction offer as final and get the contract checked first.

Can I cool off because my finance fell through?

You do not need a reason to cool off, so yes, within the three business days. After the window closes, your position depends on whether the contract was made subject to finance and how that condition is worded. The wording is where people get into trouble. Send us the contract and we will read that condition with you. If it has already become a dispute, that is solicitor's work rather than conveyancing.

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

A valid notice terminates the contract under the Act. The vendor's agreement is not part of it. What matters is that the notice was in writing, signed, and delivered to one of the people or addresses listed in section 31(3) inside the window. Keep your proof of delivery, and call us the same day so the position is documented properly. If the vendor keeps refusing, you are in a dispute, and that needs a solicitor rather than a conveyancer.

Talk to us before you sign

Most of the cooling-off problems we see would not exist if the contract had crossed a conveyancer's desk a week earlier. We review contracts and section 32 statements for buyers across Cranbourne, Clyde North, Botanic Ridge, Berwick and the rest of the corridor, and we would much rather hear from you before the auction than on day two of your cooling-off period.

Our office is at Level 1, 105A High Street in Cranbourne, open Monday to Friday, and we can see you on a weekend by appointment. Send the contract 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 Victorian conveyancing and is not legal advice for your particular transaction. Speak to us about your specific circumstances.