Property Sale Agreements being altered after they have been signed – Are they valid?

Once a property sales agreement has been signed, it is not necessarily cast in stone and can, in fact, be altered.

Brett Nicholson of Shepstone & Wylie Attorneys says that people often panic if they then need to alter something in a document after signing.

“While it is true that once the sale agreement has been completed and signed it becomes a binding contract, changes may be made, provided that they are done in writing and are signed by all the parties in order to be valid and binding,” he explains.

However, be warned that any informal variation, for example a verbal agreement between the parties will be null and void and the signed sale agreement will be taken to be the final agreement, because the variation was not recorded in writing.

A sales agreement can be changed for a variety of reasons including a common mistake or rectification, adds Nicholson.

It can happen that a common mistake has been made by the parties to the agreement which results in the terms of the agreement not reflecting the intentions of the parties, or the parties after signature wish to rectify some of the material terms.

If the sale agreement is amended and signed by only one of the parties, this amendment would be null and void. “There must be consensus between all the parties to the sale agreement to alter the terms.”

Alterations can take the form of deleting words or adding in new words to the sale agreement and provided that all alterations are signed where they are made on the agreement, by the parties, the amended agreement will be valid.