What does a section 66W certificate do to my cooling-off period?
A section 66W certificate, under the Conveyancing Act 1919 (NSW), waives the cooling-off period on a residential contract. Once it is given, you are bound from exchange with no right to rescind.
In NSW, a buyer of residential property normally gets a cooling-off period of five business days after exchange. Withdrawing during it costs 0.25% of the purchase price — on a $1.2m property, $3,000. It is not free, but it is an exit.
A section 66W certificate, signed by your solicitor or licensed conveyancer, removes that exit. It is a certificate about YOU: your lawyer certifying that they have explained what you are giving up.
Cooling-off does not apply to property bought at auction on the day of the auction. If you are bidding at auction, you are already in the position a 66W creates — which is exactly why reading the documents BEFORE the auction is the whole game.
Vendors and agents often ask for a 66W to make an offer more attractive, or as a condition of exchanging before auction. That is a legitimate request, and it may well be the right call. But it should be a decision you make having read the contract, the strata report and the inspections — not one you make in an agent's office on a Thursday afternoon.
Your conveyancer cannot sign it without advising you first. If you are being pressed for one and your documents are not reviewed, that pressure is the signal.
What to ask
Copy these into an email. The people below can answer them; we can’t.
- To your conveyancer: what am I giving up by signing a 66W here, and is there anything unresolved in the contract or the strata report that makes waiving cooling-off unwise?
- To your conveyancer: if I am bidding at auction, what checks must be finished beforehand given there is no cooling-off at all?
Want this found in your own documents?
Home Decoded reads your building, pest, strata and contract reports and pulls out what matters — with the exact quote and page behind every finding, so you can check it against the original.
Related
General information about what these documents say — not legal, building or financial advice, and not a substitute for your conveyancer, solicitor or licensed inspector. Law and practice change, schemes differ, and your contract may say something different from the general position described here.