Notice to Complete Received? Deadlines, Costs and Finance Options
Property Lending
Settlement deadlines · Penalty interest · Completion finance
A notice to complete turns a missed settlement date into a firm new deadline, and makes time of the essence, so that missing it can cost you the deal, your deposit and more. This guide explains what to do first, how to identify whether the real problem is lender delay, valuation, a linked sale, discharge administration, title or a cash shortfall, how deadlines and costs work in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, when an extension or completion finance may fit, what lenders need, and what happens after urgent finance settles. It is written for company, investor and commercial purchasers under a settlement deadline.
Quick Answer
A notice to complete is a formal demand under your contract of sale: it sets a firm new deadline and makes time of the essence. Miss it and you risk termination, deposit forfeiture and damages. Your options are an extension, completion finance, or a negotiated exit, and all of them start with your conveyancer.
Do this today: call your conveyancer or solicitor and confirm the exact expiry date and time. Then identify the real bottleneck: lender conditions, valuation, a delayed linked sale, discharge or settlement administration, title or entity documents, or an actual cash shortfall. Ask for an extension and work the underlying fix in parallel. If your existing lender can settle inside an agreed extension, that may be cleaner and lower cost than replacing the finance. If it cannot, prepare a fallback before the deadline is on top of you.
Have this ready: the contract, the notice, the exact amount still needed to settle, what your current lender says is outstanding, details of the security and existing loans, the exit that will repay any short-term facility, your entity documents, and your solicitor or conveyancer's contact details.
Who this is for: company, trust, investor and commercial purchasers on a genuine business or investment purchase. If you are buying a home to live in, this is consumer credit, so speak to your own lender, your mortgage broker and a solicitor instead.
| Your question | Short answer |
|---|---|
| What is a notice to complete? | A formal notice under your contract that sets a firm new deadline to settle and makes time of the essence. |
| What should I do today? | Call your conveyancer or solicitor, confirm the exact expiry date and time, and identify the real reason settlement is failing. |
| Why is settlement delayed? | Common bottlenecks include outstanding lender conditions, valuation shortfall, a delayed linked sale, discharge or settlement administration, title or entity issues, and a genuine cash shortfall. |
| How long do I get? | Your contract governs. Commonly 14 days under the NSW standard contract; Victoria runs its own general-condition periods; Queensland allows a short extension of up to 5 business days under applicable REIQ editions. |
| What does running late cost? | Penalty interest at the contract rate, possible vendor and repeat third-party costs, and, if a valid termination follows, the deposit and further damages at risk. |
| What if the deadline passes? | The party not in default may be able to terminate, forfeit the deposit and claim damages. Relief for a buyer is narrow and fact specific. |
| What are my options? | An extension, fixing the existing settlement path, completion finance, or a negotiated exit. The right route depends on the bottleneck. |
| Can I get finance after receiving the notice? | Sometimes. Urgent property-secured finance may be assessed where there is real equity, clear title, a genuine business or investment purpose, complete documents and an evidenced sale or refinance exit. No approval or timeframe is guaranteed. |
| What should I send first? | The contract, notice, exact shortfall, current lender status, security and existing-debt details, exit evidence, entity documents and your solicitor or conveyancer's contact details. |
| What happens after urgent finance settles? | The short-term facility begins and the exit becomes the next deadline. Keep the refinance or sale moving, arrange payout and discharge early, and raise any delay before maturity or default. |
What is a notice to complete, and what does receiving one mean?
A notice to complete is a formal notice one party serves under a contract of sale when the other has not settled on the agreed date. Its job is narrow but sharp: it sets a firm new deadline to complete, and it makes time of the essence, so that missing the new date is itself a breach the other side can act on. Receiving one does not mean the deal is over. It means the clock is now running on a date that, once it passes without settlement, gives the party not in default a clean right to terminate, forfeit the deposit and claim damages. The notice to complete glossary entry sets out the bare definition; this guide is about what to do with the days you have.
The situation splits into two very different questions, and keeping them apart is what makes the rest of this page useful. One is legal: is the notice valid, and what are your rights? That belongs with your solicitor. The other is practical: if the reason you cannot settle is timing, where does the money come from before the deadline? That is where a broker fits, and where the options on this page live.
What this page covers
- What a notice to complete does, and how the deadline actually works
- How long you get in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland
- What running late costs, from penalty interest to the deposit at risk
- Extension, completion finance or a negotiated exit, and how each fits
Different question, different adviser
- Whether the notice is valid or was served correctly, which is legal advice
- Drafting or disputing a notice, or vendor-side enforcement, all for a solicitor
- Buying a home as an owner-occupier, which is consumer credit, covered only as a boundary here
Where the gap really is finance and a genuine business or investment purpose, the funding options are a caveat loan, private lending or a second mortgage, each covered further down. First, the sequence that protects you in the hours after the notice lands.
The first 48 hours: what to do, in order
Do these four things in order, and do them in the first day or two, whatever the exact deadline written on your notice. The single biggest mistake is treating the notice as a threat to argue with rather than a clock to beat; the second is guessing at the deadline instead of reading it. Work the sequence.
- Call your conveyancer or solicitor first. Have them check the notice is valid, confirm the date it was served, and confirm the exact date and time it expires. Everything else depends on that date, so do not estimate it.
- Read the contract. Find the notice-to-complete or default clause, the penalty interest clause, and the deposit terms. These three tell you your deadline, your daily cost of running late, and what is at risk.
- Establish the cause. Work out precisely why you cannot settle: a finance approval that stalled, a discharge holding up your side, or a linked sale that slipped. The cause decides the fix.
- Triage the fix. Ask the vendor for an extension, line up completion finance, or, most often, do both in parallel so you are not left with one option that fails at the last moment.
Running finance and an extension request at the same time is not indecision; it is insurance, because either can fall through and the deadline will not wait. If the delay is on the finance side, it helps to understand what actually sets a settlement timeline on a property-secured loan, and a plain read of what "settlement" involves helps if the terms are new.
Why is settlement failing? Diagnose the bottleneck before choosing finance
The right response depends on the actual bottleneck. An approval delay, a valuation shortfall, a linked sale, a discharge or settlement-administration problem, a title or entity issue, and a genuine cash shortfall are different problems. Urgent finance can solve some of them, but it cannot fix a legal defect, manufacture missing equity or make an existing lender's administration move faster. Identify the cause before you choose the tool.
| What you are being told | What may actually be blocking settlement | Evidence to get today | Likely first route |
|---|---|---|---|
| "The loan is approved, but the lender is not ready" | Outstanding conditions, valuation, mortgage documents, insurance, verification or settlement booking may still be incomplete. | A written list of every outstanding condition and the lender's earliest realistic settlement date. | Escalate the existing file and request an extension. Build a fallback only if the date still cannot be met. |
| "The valuation came in low" or "the loan amount was reduced" | The approval may no longer cover the balance required to settle, creating a quantified cash shortfall. | The valuation outcome, revised approval, funds already available and the exact balance still required. | Request an extension and assess replacement or short-term finance only where security, purpose and exit support it. |
| "My other property has not settled" | A linked sale that was meant to provide the purchase funds has slipped. | The signed sale contract, settlement status, expected net proceeds and the updated expected settlement date. | An extension may be enough. Completion finance may be assessable where the incoming sale is real, evidenced and expected to repay it. |
| "The payout, discharge or settlement booking is delayed" | The money may exist, but the existing lender or settlement process is not operationally ready. | The discharge request, payout status, settlement workspace status and the specific item still outstanding. | Your conveyancer or solicitor and the existing lender should drive the fix. New finance may not solve an administration bottleneck. |
| "There is a caveat, title issue, trust problem or consent missing" | The obstacle may be legal, ownership-related or documentary rather than a lack of money. | A current title search, the relevant entity documents, details of the caveat or consent, and your solicitor's view of what must be resolved. | Legal advice first. A lender still needs a security position it can understand and document. |
| "The investor funds or contribution did not arrive" | There is a genuine cash shortfall at settlement. | The exact amount required, when it is needed, the property security available, existing debts and the evidenced event that will repay any temporary facility. | Run an extension request and a finance assessment in parallel, without assuming either will succeed. |
Do not cancel an existing approval or stop an extension request simply because a fallback is being explored. Keep every viable path moving until your solicitor and the relevant finance parties can confirm which one can actually complete. This is also why the notice, the current lender's written status and the exact shortfall should all be disclosed at the beginning, not halfway through the file.
Is the notice valid, and how does the deadline actually work?
Whether a notice to complete is valid is a legal question, and it is worth understanding the shape of it even though the answer belongs to your solicitor. Broadly, three things have to hold: the party serving the notice must itself be ready, willing and able to complete; the notice must make time of the essence; and it must allow a reasonable time to settle. A notice that demands completion in an unreasonably short window, or that comes from a party not itself ready to settle, may not be effective, but that is a judgement on your specific facts, not a rule you should apply yourself.
The leading authority sets the tone. In Louinder v Leis [1982] HCA 28, the High Court held that a notice to complete can be given only where there has been unreasonable delay, and that the time the notice allows must be reasonable. Read narrowly, it means the deadline on your notice is not automatically valid just because it is written down; both the trigger for the notice and the length of the period can be tested. Because that turns entirely on the facts and your contract, validity and service are questions for a solicitor. Your state law society can refer you to one, and the Law Society of New South Wales is one example of a referral service. This page covers the funding response to a valid notice, not whether the notice stands.
How long do you get? New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland compared
There is no single national deadline: the period comes from your contract and your state. In New South Wales the standard contract commonly allows 14 days; Victoria runs its own default-notice periods under the general conditions; and in Queensland time is generally of the essence under the REIQ contract, while editions containing clause 6.2 allow either party to extend settlement by up to 5 business days. Check the edition and any special conditions in your contract. The scattered conveyancing guides rarely set the three side by side, so the table below is the consolidation, and every cell comes back to the same qualifier: your contract governs, the periods vary, and this is general information rather than legal advice. Confirm your own position against your contract with your conveyancer.
| Aspect | New South Wales | Victoria | Queensland |
|---|---|---|---|
| The notice regime | A notice to complete is served to make time of the essence; the party serving it must be ready, willing and able. | A default notice under the contract of sale general conditions, making time of the essence. | Time is already of the essence under the standard REIQ contract, so there is no automatic cure period. |
| Typical period to complete | Commonly 14 days, but your contract sets the period and it must be reasonable. | The period set by the general conditions and your specific contract. | REIQ contract editions containing clause 6.2 allow either party to extend settlement by up to 5 business days, subject to the contract edition and any special conditions. |
| Penalty or default interest | At the rate stated in your contract. | Contracts commonly provide 2 percent plus the Penalty Interest Rates Act 1983 rate, currently 10 percent a year. | If the buyer is actually in default, at the rate stated in the contract. A valid clause 6.2 extension can move the due date, so confirm the exact effect with your solicitor. |
| If the period expires | The party not in default may terminate, forfeit the deposit and claim damages. | The vendor may end the contract, keep the deposit and claim loss. | The party not in default may terminate, forfeit the deposit and claim damages. |
The through-line is that no single national number answers "how long do I have". The New South Wales convention of 14 days is a common contractual standard, not a statute; Victoria runs its own general-condition periods; and Queensland, where the standard contract of sale makes time of the essence, has used a contractual right to extend settlement by up to 5 business days under clause 6.2. The cited REIQ FAQ also says that where the buyer issues a valid Extension Notice before 4pm on the settlement date, the balance becomes due on the extended settlement date, so the buyer is not in default for failing to pay on the original date and the seller is not entitled to charge penalty interest for it. Your own contract edition and special conditions govern, so have your solicitor confirm that the clause applies before relying on it. Treat any figure, including the 14 days, as a starting point to confirm against the document in front of you, not a promise. If you have seen "14 business days in most states" written somewhere, that is the kind of shorthand this table exists to correct.
What running late costs: penalty interest, notice costs and the deposit at risk
If you settle late, you may have to pay daily penalty interest, the vendor's legal or notice costs, and repeat valuation, title or document costs. If a valid notice then expires, the exposure can become much larger: the deposit may be forfeited and the party not in default may claim further loss. None of these are Switchboard figures; the amount and legal position come from your contract, the facts and the applicable law, and the table sets out the shape.
| Cost of running late | What it is | What sets the amount |
|---|---|---|
| Penalty or default interest | Interest the vendor can charge for every day you settle late. | The rate in your contract; in Victoria commonly 2 percent plus the Penalty Interest Rates Act 1983 rate. |
| The vendor's costs | The vendor's legal and notice costs, and re-marketing costs if the deal falls over. | Often recoverable from you under the contract. |
| Valuation and re-issue costs | Fresh valuations, title searches or documents that have to be redone as time passes. | The third parties who redo the work, on their fees. |
| The deposit at risk | The deposit, commonly 10 percent, which can be forfeited if the vendor validly terminates. | Your contract and the general law, covered in the next section. |
Penalty interest is the cost people underestimate. In Victoria, the standard general conditions commonly set default interest at 2 percent plus the rate fixed under the Penalty Interest Rates Act 1983, and that fixed rate is 10 percent a year (Victorian Department of Justice and Community Safety, as at January 2026; the Penalty Interest Rates Act 1983 is the source of the fixed rate). In New South Wales and Queensland the figure is whatever your contract states. The 2 percent plus convention comes from the standard conditions and your specific contract governs, so confirm the number with your conveyancer and read it as indicative until you have. The deposit is the bigger exposure: it is usually 10 percent of the price, with no law setting the amount (Consumer Affairs Victoria, as at May 2021), and it is exposed to forfeiture if the vendor validly ends the contract. Where a short window would let you sort the money out, a deferred settlement can sometimes buy the room, but that too is a matter for the contract and your solicitor.
If the deadline passes: termination, deposit forfeiture and damages
If a valid notice expires without settlement, the consequences are serious, and it is better to know them plainly than to be surprised. The party not in default, usually the vendor on a purchase, can generally terminate the contract, forfeit the deposit, and claim damages for any further loss beyond it, such as a shortfall if the property is resold for less. The notice exists precisely to turn a missed date into that clean set of rights.
Relief from those consequences is narrow. A court will sometimes grant relief against forfeiture, letting a buyer recover a paid deposit, but only in limited circumstances. In Tanwar Enterprises Pty Ltd v Cauchi [2003] HCA 57, where time was essential and the buyer failed to complete on the essential date, the High Court allowed relief only in exceptional circumstances involving unconscionable conduct by the vendor, and upheld the termination on the facts. Read narrowly, the lesson is not to count on getting a deposit back; the safer assumption is that a missed deadline on an essential date is expensive and hard to undo. That is exactly why acting inside the notice period, rather than after it, is worth so much. If the loss is more than you can fund, or a claim is coming, treat legal advice and the free help set out later on this page as the first calls, not the last.
Your three options: extension, completion finance, or a negotiated exit
You have three main moves once the notice is in hand, and the order matters: test the lowest-cost workable route first. An extension may cost less than replacing the finance, although penalty interest, legal costs or other vendor costs can still apply; completion finance is the paid way to hold the deal together when the gap is timing; and a negotiated exit is for when completing is genuinely no longer possible. The table lines them up, and the point is that finance is one option, not an automatic first reach.
| Option | When it fits | Your first step | The main risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ask for an extension | The delay is short and the vendor will agree, or a contractual right to extend applies under the relevant contract. | Have your conveyancer request it in writing, early, before the deadline passes. | The vendor can refuse where there is no contractual right, and penalty interest, legal costs or other conditions may apply. |
| Completion finance | The shortfall is timing, you have real equity, and a sale or refinance will repay it. | Get your contract, the notice and your entity documents in front of a broker. | It is short term and priced for speed, so it only works with a real, dated exit. |
| Negotiate an exit | Completing is genuinely impossible and the aim is to limit the loss. | Get legal advice before the deadline expires, not after it. | You may still forfeit the deposit and face a claim for damages. |
Start with the extension because it may be the lowest-cost route, and ask early: a request made before the deadline reads very differently from one made after it has passed. Where the vendor will not move and the only gap is cash on a real deal, completion finance is what carries the deal across the timing gap, and investors in that position often model it the way our note on closing a settlement shortfall does. How quickly a property-secured facility can be arranged depends entirely on the file, as our piece on arranging an urgent caveat facility explains, with no promised day count. The scenario below shows the extension route used well.
How completion finance works when the clock is running
Completion finance works by using the property itself, or another property you own, as security for a short-term loan that pays the balance owing so the transfer can register, and is then repaid from a planned event. It is business-purpose, property-secured and short term by design. In practice it takes one of a few shapes: a caveat loan, which is secured by an equitable interest and a caveat and is typically the fastest to arrange; or private lending, structured to the deal as a first or second mortgage where a bank cannot move in time. Each is repaid the same way: by the refinance that was always coming, or by the sale the purchase was linked to.
The mechanics of each product are covered in depth on their own pages, so this guide points to them rather than repeating them. A caveat loan is usually the quickest to put in place, and the caveat loans guide sets out how it works and what it costs. Where the deal needs a more structured facility, the private lending guide covers how a private lender assesses a settlement-deadline file. And where a registered second mortgage sitting behind your existing loan fits the timeline, its own guide explains the consent and priority that involves. The two scenarios below show the shape of a completion-finance file, deliberately outcome-vague and business-purpose.
What lenders need to see, and what to send on the first call
For urgent completion finance, the first assessment is built around the deadline, the exact shortfall, the security, the loan purpose and the exit. A complete file with those facts gives a lender something it can assess; a story without documents does not. The fastest useful first call is not a long explanation. It is a one-screen deadline brief with the hard facts attached.
| Fact the lender needs | What to provide | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| The deadline | The notice to complete, the contract of sale, the date and time the notice expires, and your solicitor or conveyancer's contact details. | The legal and settlement teams need to work backwards from the real deadline, not an estimated one. |
| The exact settlement gap | The balance required to settle, the deposit already paid, funds already available, expected adjustments and any amount your current lender will still provide. | A lender needs the actual gap, not the purchase price alone. |
| What failed in the existing path | The current approval, valuation outcome, outstanding conditions, discharge or payout status, and the current lender's earliest realistic settlement date. | This shows whether new finance is genuinely needed and whether the existing path remains a usable exit. |
| The security position | Property addresses, estimated values, current loan balances, title details, existing mortgages, caveats and any required consents. | The lender must understand the available equity, ranking and legal path to security. |
| The genuine purpose | Who is buying, what is being purchased and why the borrowing is for a business or investment purpose. | Purpose affects product suitability and whether the credit may be regulated. It must be stated accurately. |
| The exit | Evidence of the refinance already in train or the linked sale expected to repay the facility, including the people and milestones involved. | Short-term finance needs a credible repayment event, not only a plan to work it out later. |
| The borrower and entity | Identification, company or trust documents, signing authorities and the documents needed to explain the ownership structure. | Missing entity or authority documents can delay documentation even where the transaction otherwise works. |
| Credit factor | Helps the assessment | Tends to stall the file |
|---|---|---|
| Deadline disclosure | The contract and notice are supplied at the start. | The notice is disclosed after the file is already underway. |
| Equity | Real equity or a meaningful deposit is already in the transaction. | There is little security headroom or the value is unsupported. |
| Title and ranking | Existing mortgages, caveats, priorities and required consents are identified early. | A title dispute, existing caveat or consent issue remains unresolved. |
| Loan purpose | The business or investment purpose is genuine and clearly evidenced. | A consumer purpose is being presented as a business purpose. |
| Exit | A refinance or incoming sale is evidenced and expected to repay the facility. | There is no evidenced repayment event or the timing is only a hope. |
| Documents and decision-makers | Entity documents, identification, solicitor details and signing authorities are ready. | The people who must sign or provide consent are not identified or available. |
From our broking files, general and without figures
In deadline files, the notice itself is rarely the whole problem. Late disclosure is. When the notice, contract, current lender status, exact shortfall and exit evidence arrive together, the lender can sequence credit, valuation, legal work, consents and settlement around the real deadline. When the notice appears halfway through the process, the file can lose time it may not recover.
The other pattern is that borrowers often describe the symptom rather than the blockage: "the bank is delayed" can mean an unsigned mortgage, an outstanding condition, a low valuation, a discharge not booked or a settlement team without a complete file. Naming the exact blockage is useful even where short-term finance is not the answer, because it tells every adviser what has to move next.
General information only, from broking experience, and not financial advice. This is not an offer, an approval, or a likelihood of approval; every application is assessed on its own facts, its security, its exit and lender policy at the time. Speak to a qualified broker and your solicitor.
The practical rule is simple: disclose the hard fact first. Send the notice, the exact gap and the exit before the backstory. If you want a fuller sense of what that evidence pack looks like, our note on the evidence lenders want covers it, and a settlement-timeline case like our developer settlement-timeline walkthrough shows how early preparation reads.
What happens after completion finance settles?
Settlement is not the finish line for short-term completion finance; it starts the exit clock. The purchase can complete, but the temporary facility then has to be managed, repaid and discharged through the sale or refinance that justified it. A good plan therefore covers both deadlines: the contract deadline now, and the repayment deadline after settlement.
| Stage | What usually happens | What the borrower should keep moving |
|---|---|---|
| 1. The purchase settles | The lender advances the agreed funds, the transfer completes, and the agreed caveat or mortgage security is put in place under the loan documents. | Confirm settlement with your solicitor or conveyancer, keep the final settlement statement and understand exactly what security was registered or lodged. |
| 2. The short-term facility begins | Interest, fees, conditions and the maturity date operate under the signed loan documents. | Diarise the maturity date, payment or capitalisation arrangements, reporting requirements and any event that changes the cost or default position. |
| 3. The primary exit progresses | The bank refinance, property sale or other evidenced repayment event continues. | Keep valuations, documents, purchaser or lender conditions, legal work and settlement milestones moving. Do not treat the urgent settlement as permission to pause the exit. |
| 4. Payout and discharge are prepared | The outgoing short-term lender provides a payout figure and the security is discharged or withdrawn when the exit settles. | Request payout and discharge requirements early through the relevant lawyers or settlement parties, and confirm the exit proceeds are expected to cover the final amount. |
| 5. The exit is delayed | The facility may approach maturity or a default trigger before the sale or refinance is ready. | Tell the lender, broker and solicitor before the deadline is missed. Waiting until after maturity or default can reduce options and increase cost. |
A robust exit has two parts: the primary repayment event and a dated contingency trigger. The contingency is not a vague second hope. It is the point at which you will reassess if the refinance, sale or other exit is not progressing as expected. Before signing, understand the total cost under the documents, the security being taken, the maturity date, the payout process, any early-repayment terms, what happens if the exit slips, and who must act to discharge the security.
The product pages explain the mechanics in more detail: the caveat loans guide, private lending guide and second mortgage guide. The key idea here is the exit strategy: the temporary facility should have an evidenced way out before it has a way in.
Is completion finance regulated? Business versus consumer purchasers
Whether the credit is regulated turns mainly on the borrower and the purpose of the credit, not the loan size or speed. Business-purpose credit often sits outside the National Credit Act, but the boundary has important exceptions and it should not be guessed from a product label. ASIC's guidance is that where credit is not predominantly, meaning more than half, for personal, domestic or household purposes it is generally not regulated under that Act, and loans to companies are not caught at all (ASIC INFO 101, as at 20 October 2020). That is why a lender asks for a business purpose declaration, and it should be signed only if it is true.
The flip side matters just as much. A person buying a home who receives a notice to complete is in consumer-credit territory, and the right move there is not one of these products: it is to talk to your own lender and mortgage broker about your existing approval, and to get legal advice. This page's finance options are for company, investor and commercial purchasers on a business or investment purchase. If the purchase is your home, they are the wrong products, and treating a consumer purchase as business to reach them is a real risk, not a shortcut. Note too that a natural person borrowing wholly or predominantly to buy or improve residential property for investment can still be regulated, so purpose is a question to get right with advice rather than assume.
Risks, protections, checking a lender, and where to get help
Business borrowing carries the lowest level of legal protection, so the checks matter more, not less. Commercial and business loans carry the lowest level of legal protection for borrowers under the law, and commercial-only lenders are not required to hold a credit licence or to be members of the external dispute resolution scheme (ASIC INFO 207, as at 19 April 2024). The ASIC Act still bans unconscionable conduct, misleading or deceptive conduct, and unfair terms in standard-form small-business contracts, but that is a floor, not the full consumer protection a home loan carries. Access to AFCA, which handles small-business complaints for businesses with fewer than 100 employees, depends on the lender actually being a member, so it is worth confirming rather than assuming.
Checking a lender is a strength move, not a sign of weakness. Before you sign anything, look the lender up on the ASIC registers and on ABN Lookup, ask directly whether they are an AFCA member, read the full cost of the loan and its default terms, and take the loan documents to your own solicitor. A lender worth using will expect all of that. None of it slows a genuine deal; it only filters out the ones you would have regretted.
Where to get help
If the pressure is broader than this one settlement, free and independent help exists, and using it early is a strength, not a last resort. Reaching out before a deadline usually opens more doors than waiting until after it.
The Small Business Debt Helpline on 1800 413 828 gives free, independent financial counselling to people in small business. The National Debt Helpline on 1800 007 007 does the same for personal debt, and both are confidential (see Moneysmart on financial counselling and the National Debt Helpline). If you are facing legal action, or a deadline you cannot meet, get legal advice immediately: your state law society can refer you to a solicitor, and Moneysmart also lists free legal advice services.
A notice to complete sets a firm new deadline and makes time of the essence, so missing it can mean termination, a forfeited deposit and a claim for damages. How long you get comes from your contract and your state, not a national rule. Your first job is to identify the real bottleneck: lender conditions, valuation, a linked sale, discharge administration, title or entity documents, or an actual cash shortfall. Your responses may include an extension, fixing the existing settlement path, completion finance, or a negotiated exit, each starting with your conveyancer or solicitor. Where there is real equity, a genuine business or investment purpose and an evidenced exit, short-term completion finance may be assessed, but no approval or timeframe is guaranteed. The files that are easiest to assess share one shape: the deadline is confirmed, the blockage is named, the hard documents arrive first, and the exit is managed as the next deadline after settlement.
Key takeaway: confirm the exact deadline, diagnose the blockage, and keep the extension, existing finance path and any genuine fallback moving in parallel.On a deadline? Have the contract, the notice, the exact shortfall, the current lender's written status, the security position and the exit evidence in front of you when you call. There is no guaranteed approval or timeframe, but a complete brief gives a lender the information needed to assess whether a workable path exists.
Frequently Asked Questions
A notice to complete is a formal notice served under a contract of sale when one party has not settled on the agreed date. It sets a firm new deadline and makes time of the essence, so that missing the new date is itself a breach the other party can act on. It does not, by itself, end the contract; it sets the clock that, once it runs out, lets the party not in default terminate, forfeit the deposit and claim damages. The practical responses are an extension, completion finance or a negotiated exit, and all of them start with your conveyancer.
It depends on your state and, above all, on your contract. In New South Wales a notice to complete under the standard contract commonly allows 14 days, but the contract sets the period and the law requires it to be reasonable. Victorian contracts run their own default-notice periods under the general conditions, and in Queensland time is generally of the essence under the REIQ contract, while editions containing clause 6.2 allow either party to extend settlement by up to 5 business days. Check the edition and any special conditions in your contract. Read the notice and your contract with your solicitor rather than relying on a rule of thumb, because the exact period, and whether it is counted in calendar or business days, comes from the document in front of you. This is general information, not legal advice.
Broadly, the party serving the notice must itself be ready, willing and able to complete, the notice must make time of the essence, and it must allow a reasonable time to settle. The High Court in Louinder v Leis confirmed that a notice can only be given where there has been unreasonable delay, and that the time allowed must be reasonable. Whether a particular notice is valid, and whether it was served correctly, are legal questions for your solicitor, not your broker. This page covers the funding response to a valid notice; validity and service are legal advice.
Once a valid notice expires without settlement, the party not in default can usually terminate the contract, keep the deposit and claim damages for any further loss, such as a shortfall on a resale. The point of the notice is to convert a missed date into a clean right to end the deal. Because the consequences are serious and turn on your exact contract, the moment it is clear you might not make the deadline is the moment to get legal advice and, if the gap is finance, to line up completion finance in parallel. This is general information, not legal advice.
You can. Deposits are commonly 10 percent of the price, and on a valid termination for failing to complete the vendor can generally forfeit the deposit. Relief against forfeiture, where a court lets a buyer recover a paid deposit, is narrow and fact specific; the High Court in Tanwar Enterprises v Cauchi allowed it only in exceptional circumstances involving unconscionable conduct. Do not assume the deposit is recoverable, and get legal advice on your specific contract before the deadline passes.
Penalty interest, or default interest, is the extra interest a vendor can charge for each day you settle late, and it is set by your contract rather than by a single national rate. In Victoria, contracts commonly provide for 2 percent plus the rate fixed under the Penalty Interest Rates Act 1983, which is 10 percent a year (as at January 2026); in New South Wales and Queensland the figure is whatever your contract states. The number you will actually pay comes from your contract, so confirm it with your conveyancer, and treat any general figure as indicative only.
Often, yes, and it is usually the first option to test because it may cost less than replacing the finance. The cost and legal effect depend on your state, contract and whether you are actually in default. An extension may require the vendor's agreement, or it may arise from a contractual right: REIQ contract editions containing clause 6.2, for example, allow a valid Extension Notice to move settlement by up to 5 business days, subject to the contract edition and special conditions. REIQ's cited clause 6.2 FAQ says that where the buyer issues a valid Extension Notice before 4pm on the settlement date, the buyer is not in default for failing to pay on the original date and the seller is not entitled to charge penalty interest for it. Ask through your conveyancer or solicitor before the deadline, and have them confirm the exact effect of your contract. If the available extension will not solve the problem, completion finance may become the next option.
Sometimes, where the file is ready. Property-secured short-term facilities such as caveat loans and private lending are built for compressed timelines, and they are assessed on the security and the exit rather than on full serviceability. Whether one can be arranged in your particular window depends on how ready your file is: the contract and the notice to hand, real equity, clear title and an evidenced exit. There is no guaranteed timeframe, and anyone promising a settlement in a fixed number of days without seeing your file is guessing. Get your documents together early and speak to a broker before the deadline is on top of you.
Not necessarily. First ask the lender or broker for a written list of every outstanding condition and the earliest realistic settlement date. If the problem is a valuation, mortgage document, discharge, verification item or settlement booking and an agreed extension covers it, keeping the existing finance may be cleaner and lower cost than replacing it. If the lender cannot meet the extended date, quantify the exact shortfall and build a fallback in parallel. Do not cancel an existing approval merely because another option is being explored, and get legal advice on the contract deadline.
Send the contract of sale, the notice to complete, the exact expiry date and time, the exact settlement shortfall, the current lender's approval and outstanding conditions, details of the available property security and existing debts, a genuine business or investment purpose, evidence of the refinance or sale expected to repay the facility, entity documents, and your solicitor or conveyancer's contact details. The first assessment is built around the deadline, the gap, the security, the purpose and the exit. A complete brief gives the lender something it can assess; it does not guarantee approval or a timeframe.
The short-term facility starts and the exit becomes the next deadline. Keep the bank refinance, property sale or other evidenced repayment event moving from the day of settlement. Understand the maturity date, interest and fees under the documents, the security taken, the payout process and what happens if the exit is delayed. Arrange payout and discharge requirements early, and tell the lender, broker and solicitor before any maturity or default deadline is missed. Urgent finance solves the settlement deadline only if the repayment plan is managed as actively as the purchase.
It matters a great deal. Whether the credit is regulated depends on the borrower and the purpose. ASIC's guidance is that credit not predominantly for personal, domestic or household use is generally outside the National Credit Act, and loans to companies are not caught, but a natural person borrowing wholly or predominantly to buy or improve residential property for investment can still be regulated. A person buying a home to live in should speak to their own lender, mortgage broker and solicitor about the existing approval rather than treating a consumer purchase as business purpose. This is general information, not legal advice.
The main risk is using short-term, higher-cost finance without a real exit, so it should only be taken where a sale or refinance repays it on a known date. Commercial and business loans also carry the lowest level of legal protection under the law, and commercial-only lenders need not hold a credit licence or belong to the AFCA dispute-resolution scheme, though the ASIC Act still bans unconscionable or misleading conduct and unfair terms in standard-form small-business contracts. Before you sign, check the lender and the loan: look them up on the ASIC registers and ABN Lookup, ask whether they are an AFCA member, read the full cost and the default terms, and get independent legal and financial advice.
Call your conveyancer or solicitor first, and confirm the exact date the notice expires. Read the contract for the notice period, the penalty interest clause and the deposit terms. Work out what is actually causing the delay, whether that is finance, a discharge or a linked sale, because the cause decides the fix. Then run two tracks in parallel: ask the vendor for an extension, and, if the gap is finance and a real exit repays it, get your contract, the notice and your entity documents to a broker. If the pressure is broader than this one settlement, free financial counselling is available on the National Debt Helpline and the Small Business Debt Helpline.
What sources support this guide?
This guide is built on primary sources: the state government and consumer-affairs pages on buying and selling property, the Victorian penalty interest rate and its Act, the REIQ contract materials for Queensland, the High Court reports for the two cases discussed, and ASIC's guidance on how commercial lending is regulated. Each was read again for this update, and every figure is shown with its source and date beside it. The table shows what supports which claim, and how current it is.
| Source | What it supports | As at |
|---|---|---|
| NSW Government and Consumer Affairs Victoria, buying and selling property | The notice-to-complete process, the settlement timeline, and the deposit commonly being 10 percent | 2021 to 2025 |
| Penalty Interest Rates Act 1983 (Vic) and DJCS penalties and values | The Victorian penalty interest rate of 10 percent a year, fixed under section 2 | Jan 2026 |
| REIQ clause 6.2 contract-change FAQ (Queensland) | The clause 6.2 right in the cited REIQ materials to extend settlement by up to 5 business days, and that a buyer who issues a valid Extension Notice before 4pm on the settlement date is not in default for failing to pay on the original date and is not charged penalty interest for it | 2022 |
| Louinder v Leis [1982] HCA 28 | A notice to complete requires unreasonable delay and must allow a reasonable time | 1982 |
| Tanwar Enterprises Pty Ltd v Cauchi [2003] HCA 57 | Relief against forfeiture on an essential date is narrow and exceptional | 2003 |
| ASIC INFO 101 and INFO 207 | Business-purpose credit and the National Credit Act, and the level of borrower protection on commercial loans | 2020 to 2024 |
| Moneysmart, National Debt Helpline, AFCA | Free financial counselling, the helpline numbers, and small-business dispute resolution | 2026 |
Regulatory positions and case holdings are summarised, not reproduced in full, and none of this is legal, tax or financial advice. Figures such as the Victorian penalty interest rate and state contract conventions can change, and your own contract governs, so confirm the detail with your solicitor or conveyancer, and the current source pages, before you act.
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