“How do I count the days from the effective date on the Purchase & Sale Agreement?”

As an instructor with The Real Esate Leaning Group, I have observed that when we teach the purchase and sale agreement to new licensees, (and even some experienced ones), there’s a lot of discussion around counting days from effective date.  The latest version of Zip Forms defines a day as “days in this agreement shall mean business days defined as excluding Saturdays, Sundays and State/Federal holidays (including but not limited to Patriots Day, Columbus Day, Martin Luther King Holiday, etc).

I decided to go to the source.  Kim Coit has been the chair of the committee that reviews all of the language in Zip Forms based on concerns and suggestions from the users.  Here is some Q & A.

TRELG:  When we teach the purchase and sale agreement to new licensees, (and even some experienced ones), there’s a lot of discussion around counting days from effective date.  The definition provided on the latest version of Zip Forms reads:

“the use of the term “days” in this Agreement, including all addenda made a part hereof, shall mean business days defined as excluding Saturdays, Sundays and any State/Federal holidays (including but not limited to Patriots Day, Columbus Day, Martin Luther King Holiday, etc.).”

Since days in a contract can be defined as calendar days or business days, how did the committee decide to go with business rather than calendar?

Kim:  Days from the effective date in the Realtors® provided forms, including most recently Zip Forms, have ranged from calendar, or actual, days to business days.  Sometimes this could even be mixed from paragraph to paragraph from one form to the other.  So consistency is one goal.

TRELG:  How did you all settle on business days?

Kim:  Some of the feedback we received was that using calendar or actual days sometimes end on a weekend or a holiday.  This meant that licensees had to monitor these dates constantly, even when they were trying to take some time away from their real estate practice.  Also, if the clients needed to make changes to the agreement, they and, their licensees, would all have to be available to make the necessary changes to the agreements.  It was felt that using business days would lighten the workload during what might be non-business times.

TRELG:  So all of the Zip Form documents have been changed to the business day standard.

Kim:  That was the goal.  Even the Kick-out form that previously specified hours, has been changed to days.

TRELG:  Anything else you’d like to pass along?

Kim:  Yes, the new agreements define 5 PM as the end of the day.  That’s something that some licensees are missing.  Every year, MAR asks for input from the members regarding the forms and suggestions from the field.  Everyone should take a moment to share their thoughts.

If you have any questions or comments regarding this topic, (or any other relating topic), we would love to hear from you!  Please post your comment below or email us.  We also invite you to visit our website to find out more about us and what we offer.  Mary Beth Guard wrote an interesting article, “Working Days, Business Days and Reg Z“ that might be helpful when determining business days.

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website