Legal Ease ReFORMed THE 2015 GAR FORMS
AT THE BEGINNING OF EVERY YEAR, THE GAR FORMS COMMITTEE RELEASES A NEW SET OF GAR FORMS (“FORMS”) FOR USE BY REALTORS®
AND OTHERS
WHO PURCHASE THE RIGHT TO USE THE FORMS. 2015 IS NO EXCEPTION. CHANGES TO THE FORMS ARE NOT MADE LIGHTLY. EVERY CHANGE IS EXAM- INED, RE-EXAMINED AND THEN EXAMINED AGAIN BY THE FORMS COMMITTEE TO ENSURE THAT EVERY CHANGE THAT IS MADE IS DELIBERATE AND ACCOM- PLISHES ITS INTENDED GOAL. OVER THE LAST SEVERAL YEARS, A MAJOR FOCUS OF THE FORMS COMMITTEE HAS BEEN TO CREATE MORE “USER FRIENDLY” FORMS. IN THIS REGARD, THE COMMITTEE HAS CONTINUED TO REFORMAT ITS FORMS SO THAT WHEREVER POSSIBLE, ALL BLANKS APPEAR IN THE BEGINNING OF FORMS.
In the 2015 Forms, the blanks in the brokerage en -
gagement agreements and the GAR leases have all been moved to the front. The Forms Committee believes that when forms are easy for people to use and understand fewer mistakes and misunderstandings will occur. The Forms Committee also has twin goals of balancing the rights of buyers and sellers in real estate transactions while protecting the real estate brokers and licensees with whom buyers and sellers work. Let’s look at some of the more important changes in the 2015 Forms.
1 F20, Purchase and Sale Agreement Revised (A) EXTENSION OF DEADLINES.
One question which regularly arises in contracts is when
dodeadlines that fall on a Saturday, Sundayor holiday get extended to the next business day? Rather than having parties and their REALTORS®
debate this issue from trans- 12IGEORGIA REALTOR®
action to transaction, the GAR Forms Committee added language to the 2015 Purchase and Sale Agreement stat- ing that: “No time deadline under thisAgreement shall be extended by virtue of it falling on a Saturday, Sunday or federal holiday except for the date of closing.” Let’s look at the following example to better understand
this new provision. A buyer makes a counteroffer that is open for acceptance by a seller until Sunday night at 10:00 p.m. Does this deadline extend to the next business day because it falls on a Sunday? Based on the new lan- guage in the GAR Purchase and Sale Agreement, the answer to this question is no. A deadline falling on a Sat- urday, Sunday or federal holiday is only extended to the next business day if it is the date of closing. If the closing is mistakenly scheduled on Christmas Day (a federal hol- iday), it would automatically be extended to the next busi- ness day. However, all other deadlines which fall on a Saturday, Sunday or federal holidays are not extended.
JANUARY I FEBRUARY 2015
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