A seller disclosure statement is the document a Queensland seller must give a buyer before the buyer signs a contract. It is required under the Property Law Act 2023 for contracts entered into on or after 1 August 2025, it is in an approved form (Form 2), and it comes with a set of prescribed certificates. It is not a building and pest report, and the scheme does not require the seller to disclose the structural condition of the building.
If you are selling in Queensland, you have probably heard the line: we cannot take a signature until the Form 2 is back. If you are buying, you have an inbox full of PDFs and an agent asking when you can sign. Until 1 August 2025 a Queensland seller had no general duty to disclose; the Property Law Act 2023 changed that, and much of the internet has not caught up.
When does a Queensland seller have to give the disclosure statement?
Before the buyer signs the contract, and at auction it has to be given before the hammer falls. It can be handed over in person, posted or sent electronically, and the seller should keep proof the buyer received it, such as a read receipt or a signed acknowledgement.
The legal deadline is before the buyer signs, not before the listing. In practice the paperwork still comes before the For Sale sign, because a buyer can turn up on the first weekend and cannot sign until the bundle exists. The seller can complete the Form 2 themselves and the agent can hand it over on the seller’s behalf, but most sellers have their solicitor prepare it and order the certificates, because a mistake hands the buyer a termination right. Our conveyancing for sellers covers the statement and every certificate; our guide to the legal essentials before you list has the rest.
The slow piece is the body corporate certificate. The body corporate has five business days to issue it once asked, and may charge a fee. Order it the day you decide to sell, not the day you get an offer.
What goes into the Form 2 bundle?
The Property Law Act 2023 and its Regulation list what a seller has to disclose. Miss a certificate and the buyer may be able to walk away at any time before settlement. The certificates are given with the form, together or separately, as long as the buyer has all of them before signing.
| Item | What it is | What a buyer reads it for |
|---|---|---|
| Title search and plan | The current title search and the registered survey plan | The owner, and the mortgages, easements, covenants and caveats |
| Body corporate certificate | Form 33 (Form 34 for a two-lot scheme) plus the community management statement, for a unit or townhouse; an explanatory statement can stand in where the body corporate cannot issue one | Levies, sinking fund, insurance, by-laws, special levies |
| Contaminated land | Environmental Protection Act notices, including an Environmental Management Register listing | A recorded contamination history |
| Building and planning notices | Notices under the QBCC Act, the Building Act and the Planning Act, including unresolved enforcement notices and owner-builder notices | Ordered work not yet done; owner-builder work |
| Tree orders | Any application or order under the Neighbourhood Disputes Act | A neighbour’s tree dispute that comes with the keys |
| Pool safety | The pool safety certificate (Form 23), or the Notice of No Pool Safety Certificate (Form 36) | Certified, or a 90-day deadline after settlement that becomes yours |
| Infrastructure and heritage | Transport infrastructure proposals, resumption notices and heritage listings | A road, rail or heritage decision touching the land |
| Zoning, encumbrances and tenancies | Declared in the form itself: the zoning, any unregistered encumbrances, and any residential tenancy or rooming accommodation agreement, with the date of the last rent increase if there was one in the past 12 months | What you can do with the land, who else has rights over it, and who is living there |
| Rates and water | The most recent notices, disclosed in the form itself | What the property costs to hold |
The Queensland Government’s seller disclosure scheme page has a plain summary and the guide.
What does the disclosure statement not tell you?
What it does not contain matters just as much. Nothing in the scheme requires the seller to disclose the structural condition of the building, flooding history, or past building and development approvals. There is no building and pest report in the bundle. The form itself carries a warning that it also leaves out pest infestation and the past or current use of the property. Rates and water sit inside the form, not as a certificate, and are not a material matter for the termination right below.
In Brisbane, flooding history is the big question, and the Form 2 does not cover it. Brisbane City Council’s FloodWise Property Report does; our page on conveyancing in Brisbane explains how it fits around the inspection date, and our guide to building and pest inspections covers the report.
Read the statement with the contract, not instead of an inspection.
What should a buyer do with the bundle before signing?
First, check that every certificate is there and current. A missing certificate usually gives you a right to terminate without having to prove it mattered. Then read the body corporate certificate if it is a unit or townhouse, and check the pool notice.
- Check every certificate is there
- Read the body corporate certificate
- Check the pool notice
- Fill in the finance and inspection dates
- Insure the day you sign
Then the contract. The finance and building and pest conditions are standard clauses in the REIQ and Queensland Law Society contract, and the buyer switches them on by completing the reference schedule: the finance amount, the lender, the finance date and the inspection date. Leave the schedule blank and the condition does not apply.
Cooling off is your time to get the building and pest report and the finance answer if the contract does not already make them conditions, and five business days is not long for either. It is not long when you need an inspector, a lender and a body corporate manager to all come back in time. And the property is at your risk from 5pm on the first business day after the contract date under the standard contract, not from settlement. Insure the property the day you sign.
Have the bundle and the contract read before you sign, not during cooling off. Here the offer usually goes on the contract itself, and it binds once both sides sign, often subject to conditions. See our conveyancing for buyers.
What happens if the seller did not give it, or got it wrong?
There are two versions of the termination right.
Statement never given
If the seller did not give you the statement before you signed, you may be able to terminate the contract at any time before settlement and have your deposit back within 14 days. Where a prescribed certificate is missing altogether, the materiality test does not apply, with narrow exceptions where another law sets the consequence for that particular omission.
Statement given but wrong
If it was inaccurate or incomplete about something material that you did not know and would have changed your mind, you may be able to terminate the contract at any time before settlement and have your deposit back within 14 days.
The scheme gives you a right to terminate, not a right to damages of its own, so the review happens before you sign, not after.
Sellers: you cannot contract out of this. A special condition that says the buyer waives disclosure does not work. And the exemptions are narrower than people expect: related parties and very high-value sales, in both cases only where the buyer waives disclosure in writing before signing; government and listed-company buyers; and councils recovering unpaid rates.
A missing certificate hands the buyer a walk-away right that lasts until settlement.
How is Queensland different from NSW and Victoria?
If you know the NSW process, the disclosure here is a separate bundle rather than stapled into the NSW contract for sale, and it lands before signing rather than before advertising; Victoria’s Section 32 vendor statement works the Queensland way. The cooling off will feel like home. Same country, three rulebooks.
| State | What the seller gives | When | Cooling off |
|---|---|---|---|
| NSW | The contract for sale with prescribed documents attached | Before the property is advertised | Five business days from exchange; 0.25 per cent of the price to withdraw |
| Victoria | A signed Section 32 statement | Before the buyer signs the contract | Three clear business days after signing; $100 or 0.2 per cent of the price, whichever is more |
| Queensland | The Form 2 disclosure statement with prescribed certificates | Before the buyer signs; at auction, before the hammer falls | Five business days from receiving the fully signed contract; up to 0.25 per cent, deducted from the deposit |
Waiving cooling off differs as well. In Queensland it takes written notice to the seller or the agent, and no solicitor’s certificate; a seller or agent who asks for one is working from an old script. In NSW it takes a section 66W certificate signed by a lawyer or licensed conveyancer who is not acting for the seller, and in the ACT a section 17 certificate. Day counting is in our guide to cooling-off periods.
What does this mean for your sale or purchase?
Sellers: the law says before the buyer signs; in practice, have the bundle ready before you list, because the certificates take longer than the photos. Buyers: read the bundle before you sign, and put the conditions in the schedule, not in your head.
- Selling? Engage a solicitor before you list, not after the offer.
- Order the body corporate certificate the day you decide to sell.
- Sort the pool safety certificate, or the Form 36, before the campaign.
- Buying? Count the certificates, then read them.
- Fill in the finance and inspection dates; insure from day one.
Titlespace is a conveyancing law firm based in Sydney acting for buyers, sellers and transfers in NSW, VIC, QLD and the ACT. Our Queensland team prepares the Form 2 for sellers and reads it for buyers; for the local rules, start with conveyancing in Queensland.
Reviewed by Marc Ryckmans, Legal Practitioner Director, October 2026. Last updated October 2026. This article is general information about seller disclosure in Queensland. It is not legal advice about your transaction.
The content of this blog post is intended as general information and should be considered broad guidance only. It does not constitute legal, financial, or tax advice and should not be relied upon as such. Every property transaction is different, and we recommend seeking personalised advice from a qualified professional before making any investment or legal decisions.
Questions sellers and buyers ask about seller disclosure in Queensland
Is a seller disclosure statement mandatory in Queensland?
Yes. For contracts entered into on or after 1 August 2025, a Queensland seller must give the buyer a Form 2 disclosure statement with its prescribed certificates before the buyer signs, under the Property Law Act 2023. The duty applies to sales of freehold lots generally, including houses, units and vacant land, not only to homes. A seller cannot contract out of it, and the exemptions are narrow: related parties and very high-value sales, in both cases only where the buyer waives disclosure in writing before signing; certain government and listed-company buyers; and a council recovering unpaid rates. If the statement is not given, or a certificate is missing or materially wrong, the buyer may be able to terminate before settlement.
Who prepares the Form 2 seller disclosure statement?
The seller is responsible for it. The seller can complete the form personally and the agent can give it to the buyer on the seller’s behalf, but in practice most sellers have their solicitor prepare the Form 2 and order the certificates that go with it: the title search and plan, the body corporate certificate and community management statement for a unit or townhouse, the pool safety certificate or Form 36, and the council and environmental notices. The seller signs the statement before it is given. You can prepare a Form 2 bundle yourself for your own property, and carry the termination risk if you get it wrong. The body corporate has five business days to issue its certificate once asked, so the sensible time to start is the day you decide to sell.
What happens if the seller does not provide a disclosure statement in QLD?
If the seller did not give you the statement before you signed, you may be able to terminate the contract at any time before settlement and have your deposit back within 14 days. Where a prescribed certificate is missing altogether, the materiality test does not apply, so you do not have to show the omission would have changed your mind; there are narrow exceptions where another law sets the consequence for that particular omission. If the statement was given but was inaccurate or incomplete about something material that you did not know and would have changed your mind, the same termination right applies, but you have to show all three things. The scheme gives a right to terminate, not a right to damages of its own, which is why the review happens before you sign, not after.
Does the seller disclosure statement include a building and pest report?
No. There is no building and pest report in the Form 2 bundle, and the scheme does not require the seller to disclose the structural condition of the building, flooding history, past building and development approvals, or pest infestation. Those are the buyer’s own enquiries. In Queensland the building and pest inspection is usually a condition the buyer writes into the contract by completing the reference schedule, with a date attached; if there is no condition, the five business day cooling off period is the time you have to get the report. Read the statement with the contract, not instead of an inspection.
Do I need a disclosure statement to sell a unit in Queensland?
Yes, and the bundle is bigger. As well as the Form 2, the title search and the registered plan, a seller of a unit or townhouse in a community titles scheme must give the buyer the body corporate certificate (Form 33, or Form 34 for a two-lot scheme), or an explanatory statement where the body corporate cannot issue one, and the community management statement. The body corporate has five business days to issue the certificate once asked, and may charge a fee, so order it the day you decide to sell rather than the day you get an offer. The buyer reads it for the levies, the sinking fund, the insurance, the by-laws and any special levy or building works the committee has been discussing. A seller who accepts an offer before the certificate arrives either delays signing or signs without it and hands the buyer a termination right.
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