Adjustments at settlement: who pays for which days
At settlement the price is not the only figure that changes hands: outgoings such as council rates are adjusted between seller and buyer, so that each carries the days that are theirs. Victoria, Western Australia and Queensland put settlement day on the seller’s side of the line; South Australia generally puts it on the buyer’s.
General information, not legal advice. The figures are worked out by whoever handles your settlement, under your contract. To check a state’s rule, see Consumer Affairs Victoria’s settlement page or the other state pages listed at the foot of this page.
Line 03.1
The line through settlement day
Each state page draws the line in its own words. In Victoria the seller carries the rates through to the end of settlement day itself, and the buyer takes them on from the following day. Western Australia’s Consumer Protection page draws the same line: settlement day belongs to the seller, and the buyer’s share begins the day after. Queensland’s page for sellers agrees: you pay up to and including settlement day, and the buyer starts the next day.
South Australia draws it a day earlier. Generally the seller is responsible for rates up until and including midnight before the settlement date, and the buyer from the settlement date itself.
The line falls on the settlement date the contract sets. The official pages give the usual spans: 30 to 90 days in Victoria, also 30 to 90 days in Western Australia, about 6 weeks after contracts are exchanged in NSW, and 4 to 12 weeks after signing in South Australia. Victoria, NSW and South Australia each say a different date can be negotiated, and the rates line moves with it.
Illustration only: one working week with settlement on a Wednesday, drawn from the state rules above. It shows whose days are whose, not any amount.
The NSW, Tasmanian, ACT and Northern Territory pages read for this guide do not say how the day of settlement is split, so they are not drawn.
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A settlement, line by line
The lines below are the ones the official pages name; which of them appear in a given sale depends on the contract and the home.
Lines a seller may meet at settlement, with the state each rule belongs to.
Line
What the official page says
The balance of the price
In Victoria a sale is finalised at settlement once the checks are done, the title and transfer papers are exchanged and the balance of the price is paid. In South Australia, the balance is paid at settlement and the buyer becomes entitled to be registered as owner. In NSW every settlement is completed electronically, and both parties need a solicitor or conveyancer who subscribes to the system.
Council rates and other outgoings
Adjusted between seller and buyer in Victoria and Western Australia, as drawn above.
Land tax
In Victoria, a seller may not pass land tax on to the buyer on a contract under the threshold. The rules for each state are in land tax when you sell.
In South Australia the outgoings also appear in writing. The seller’s Form 1 statement sets out important information about the property, and the state’s page lists outgoings among it, giving water rates as an example.
In Queensland, a home in a body corporate brings levies. The state’s body corporate page tells owners they pay regular levies towards day-to-day running costs, that late levies can attract interest of up to 30 per cent a year and other costs, and that a new owner may be liable for any amounts still outstanding.
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The GST notice a home seller still gives
Selling a family home is generally outside GST, but the ATO still requires a written notice to the buyer about withholding.
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Paying out on the day
In Western Australia, the Settlement Agents Act 1981 governs a licensed settlement agent’s trust account. Money paid into it cannot be used to pay the agent’s other creditors, nor taken by them through a court order. The agent may pay a client’s proper settlement charges from it, but “only when those charges lawfully fall due”. Moneys withdrawn from the account must be paid to “the person or persons lawfully entitled or authorised to receive them”.
The same Act leaves a paper trail. When a settlement agent receives money for a settlement, the agent must give the person it was received for “an account in writing of all such moneys and of the application thereof”: what came in, and where it went.
Line 03.6
The deposit at the finish
For a Victorian sale at auction, Consumer Affairs Victoria’s page for buyers says the seller’s estate agent, conveyancer or legal practitioner holds the deposit in a trust account until the settlement date, and that it can be released to the seller before settlement if the buyer agrees. Consumer Affairs Victoria’s page for sellers sets conditions on releasing a deposit early, and that process changes from 1 July 2027; both, and the rules for a sale with no agent, are in where the deposit goes.
In the Northern Territory, the Agents Licensing Act 1979 covers a deposit that a licensed agent is authorised to keep in a trust account. If that money is to be withheld or not repaid, the agent has 14 days from the completion of the transaction to tell everyone involved, the agent’s own client included, in writing why.
The pages read for this guide do not describe how the deposit is released on settlement day in the other states.