Extending Sales Agency Agreements in South Australia

South Australian real estate agent regulation contains a handy way for agents to extend the duration of their sales agency agreements by up to 180 days. The default is that an agency agreement ends after 90 days. Sometimes complications arise between appointing an agent and getting the property on the market. Other times the market is just slow and agents need more than 90 days to market, contract a buyer and complete the sale.

Agents may extend the agreement beyond 90 days by giving a “notice of expiry” to their client.

At this point there is nothing left to do unless the client wants to end the agreement or agree a shorter period with their agent for the extension than is prescribed by regulation. If the client decides to do nothing, then the duration of the agency agreement is extended by 180 days.

One gotcha to be aware of is that if the client and the agent decide to agree in writing on a different duration by which to extend the agreement, the maximum duration for extension is only 90 days.

The act and regulation are found below: