Acceptance: Late or Right on Time

Question:

Offer is irrevocable until 11 pm. Seller’s agent sends an email saying here’s the accepted offer at 11:00 pm on the dot.

The seller’s signature under successors and assignors is time stamped by DocuSign correctly for 10:53 pm.

However, the Seller’s agent wrote the confirmation of acceptance time as 11:53 pm (she meant to write 10:53 pm) and had the seller sign the confirmation of acceptance.

What’s the best way to correct this? Is it acceptable to simply cross out the time and have both parties initial, even though the Confirmation of Acceptance has already been signed?

Answer:

It looks like you have an accepted Offer resulting in an enforceable Agreement of Purchase and Sale.

However, maybe you should double check the time. As long as you received it by 11:00 pm, then, you would be fine. One second later and it’s too late. The time is when you received it, not when they sent it.

The time that the Seller signed it, has no meaning at all. That’s simply the “execution” of the document. Who cares! No one. The “key time” is when you received the communication of the acceptance of the Offer.

The Confirmation of Acceptance is an unnecessary provision. So, even if it was incorrect, that wouldn’t matter.

If the Offer was received “in time”, then no corrections or amendments are required.

Brian Madigan LL.B., Broker

www.OntarioRealEstateSource.com

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *