Question:
Can you simply accept an old expired Offer to get things going again? That is, place new dates on it?
Answer:
The correct documents are, of course, a brand new Offer, signed up as a brand new APS. There is no question about that.
You can “officially” back date documents. This is when you are in a real mess. The downside is that you need a Court Order confirming the official backdating, “nunc pro tunc”. It will likely cost $10,000, so it’s not cheap! Avoid this, if at all possible.
The low end paperwork approach would be to reuse the old document, with all its signatures and initials etc., update it through a new document. The new document is a new Offer, now with today’s date on it, but just a simple one page document. A Counter Offer Form would work.
We are not reviving the old Offer, that is dead, we are just reusing some of the old paperwork, rather than throwing it out. It’s messy and it’s risky, if you don’t do it right.
Better, naturally, just to push the print button and get a whole new Offer. But, if you happen to be on a desert island and only have a napkin to work with, this would be your solution.
Brian Madigan LL.B., Broker