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Kooky
Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.
About Kooky and Shaka →Arguments about property sales are rarely about the land. They are about the dishwasher, the curtains in the front room, the television bracket, the garden shed and the pot plants on the deck. A buyer arrives for the final inspection and finds bare windows. A seller is asked, a week after moving out, where the remote control for the garage door went. The sums are small beside the purchase price and the irritation is not.
The standard Queensland contract deals with these questions more precisely than most people realise. It divides everything on the property into categories, says which pass to the buyer, tells the seller what must be removed and by when, and provides for what is left behind. This guide sets out those rules as they appear in the Contract for the Sale and Purchase of Residential Real Estate, published by the Real Estate Institute of Queensland and the Queensland Law Society and in use in its first edition since 1 August 2025. It is general information, and the answer in any one sale depends on what was written into that contract.
REIQ and Queensland Law Society residential contract, first edition, clause 1 definitions, reference schedule and clause 8.2.
Three things are being sold
The contract uses the word "Property" as a defined term, and the definition is the starting point for every question about what is included. The property means three things together: the lot, the improvements and the included chattels.
The lot is the land, or in a unit sale the lot in the community titles scheme. The improvements and the included chattels are each defined in turn, and between them they sort every object on the premises into one of two groups. Things that are part of the building pass with it unless the contract says otherwise. Things that are not part of the building stay with the seller unless the contract says otherwise. The reference schedule at the front has a box for each kind of exception.
Related readSeller disclosure wrong or missing: a Queensland buyer's right to terminateThe Queensland Law Handbook, published by Caxton Legal Centre, makes the practical point that follows. The reference schedule records the information relevant to the sale, including the fixtures and chattels, and those details should be correctly recorded before the contract is signed.
Improvements: whatever is fixed
The contract defines improvements as all fixed structures on the lot, including all items fixed to them. It gives examples in brackets: stoves, hot water systems, fixed carpets, curtains, blinds and in-ground plants, among others. The definition ends by carving out the reserved items, which are discussed below.
The test is attachment. An oven wired and built into the kitchen is fixed. So is a hot water system plumbed to the house, a ceiling fan, a carpet laid wall to wall and a shrub growing in a garden bed. All of them are improvements, and all of them are sold with the lot without being mentioned anywhere in the schedule.
Two of the contract's examples are worth noticing because they are the ones buyers and sellers most often assume the other way. Curtains and blinds are named as improvements. A seller who intends to take the custom drapes to the next house needs to say so in the contract. In-ground plants are named as well. A lemon tree planted in the lawn is part of the property; the same tree in a tub is not.
Included chattels: only what is written down
A chattel is a movable item of personal property: furniture, a freestanding refrigerator, a washing machine, a lawnmower, a pot plant. Chattels do not pass with land as a matter of course. Under the standard contract a chattel is sold only if it is an included chattel, and included chattels are those listed in the reference schedule. The schedule's box carries a note that an annexure can be attached if more space is needed.
Related readSigning a Queensland property contract electronically: what the law acceptsThe rule is strict in both directions. An item on the list is part of the property the seller has agreed to transfer. An item not on the list is not, however clearly it was pointed out at the open home or described in the advertisement. A buyer who expects the outdoor setting, the wall-mounted television or the ride-on mower to stay needs to see the words in the box.
Descriptions matter. "Refrigerator" identifies an item if there is one refrigerator in the house and invites an argument if there are two. Make, location and number remove the doubt: the stainless steel refrigerator in the kitchen, both remote controls for the garage door, the three bar stools at the kitchen bench.
Excluded fixtures and the seller's reserved items
The second box in the schedule works in the opposite direction. Excluded fixtures are items that are fixed to the property, and would otherwise pass as improvements, which the seller is keeping. A chandelier with family history, a mounted television, a statue concreted into the garden: if the seller wants to remove one, this is where it is recorded.
The contract then gathers everything the seller is entitled to take into a single defined term. Reserved items means the excluded fixtures and all chattels on the lot other than the included chattels. In other words, the seller keeps the fixtures that were expressly excluded and every movable thing that was not expressly included.
| Category | What it covers | Goes to the buyer? | Where it is recorded |
|---|---|---|---|
| Improvements | Fixed structures and items fixed to them | Yes, automatically | Nowhere. The definition does the work. |
| Included chattels | Movable items the parties agree to sell | Yes, if listed | Reference schedule or annexure |
| Excluded fixtures | Fixed items the seller is keeping | No | Reference schedule |
| Other chattels | Every movable item not listed as included | No | Nowhere. They are reserved items by default. |
The table shows why the two boxes carry so much weight. The contract's default settings cover most of a house correctly. The boxes exist for the exceptions, and an exception that is not written in does not exist.
Related readSpecial conditions in Queensland contracts: subject to sale, due diligenceThe items that fall between
Some things do not sort themselves neatly, and they account for most disputes. A television hangs on a bracket screwed to the wall: the bracket is fixed, the screen lifts off. A dishwasher slides into a cavity and connects by a hose. A garden shed sits on a slab without being bolted to it. A pool has an automatic cleaner that lives in the water. An alarm system has sensors on the walls and a control panel that can be unplugged.
The contract's definition asks whether an item is fixed to a fixed structure, and reasonable people can answer that differently for each of these. The contract does not list every household object, and it would be unwise to rely on a general principle to settle the fate of a particular appliance.
The answer the document itself provides is the schedule. Anything a buyer cares about that could be argued either way can be put beyond argument by listing it as an included chattel. Anything a seller intends to take that could be argued to be fixed can be listed as an excluded fixture. Writing in an item that would have passed anyway costs nothing. Leaving out an item that turns out to be contested costs a tense final inspection and, sometimes, a delayed settlement.
Things the seller does not fully own
A further category causes trouble less often and more seriously: items on the property that are subject to someone else's interest. Solar systems, air conditioners and hot water units are sometimes installed under finance or rental agreements, and the financier may have registered an interest in the equipment.
Related readSubject to finance in Queensland: how the contract's loan clause worksThe contract anticipates this. It defines security interests as all security interests registered on the Personal Property Securities Register over included chattels and improvements, and it includes them within the wider term encumbrances. Clause 7.2 then provides that the property is sold free of all encumbrances other than the title encumbrances and tenancies. Among the documents the seller must deliver at settlement under clause 5.5 is any instrument necessary to release any encumbrance over the property.
The buyer has a means of checking. In clause 7.11 the seller authorises the buyer to inspect records held by any authority relating to the property, and the clause mentions security interests on the register by name. A buyer's solicitor or conveyancer can search the register against the seller before settlement, and a seller with equipment under finance should expect to pay it out or obtain a release as part of the sale.
Tenanted properties add a simpler point. Furniture and appliances that belong to the tenant are not the seller's to sell and are not affected by the contract at all.
Looking after it until settlement
Weeks pass between signing and settlement, and the property has to arrive at the other end in the state it was in when the bargain was struck. Clause 8.3 puts the obligation on the seller: the seller must use the property reasonably until settlement, and must not do anything regarding the property that may significantly alter it or result in later expense for the buyer.
That clause is the buyer's protection against the stripped garden and the removed light fittings. A seller who takes out fixed items that were not excluded is not using the property reasonably and is not delivering the improvements the contract describes.
Related readSupreme Court keeps a buyer's caveat on a $2.85 million Caloundra saleRisk is a separate matter, and it runs the other way. Clause 8.1 says the property is at the buyer's risk from 5pm on the first business day after the contract date. The Queensland Law Handbook advises buyers to arrange insurance immediately for that reason. The clause concerns damage from events such as storm or fire. It does not excuse a seller from the duty to use the property reasonably, and it does not make the buyer responsible for the seller's own carelessness.
Appliances that fail of their own accord between contract and settlement are the classic grey area. The contract contains no clause promising that every included chattel will be in working order on settlement day. Parties who want that assurance write it in as a special condition, naming the items and the standard.
The final inspection
The buyer's opportunity to check all of this is clause 8.2. After reasonable notice to the seller, the buyer and its consultants may enter the property on several stated occasions, one of which is once to inspect the property before settlement. The same clause gives separate rights of entry to read a meter, to value the property and to inspect the smoke alarms.
One visit is not many, so timing matters. An inspection too early leaves time for things to change. An inspection on the morning of settlement leaves almost no time to resolve what it finds. Many buyers aim for the day before, after the seller has moved out, when missing items and damage from the removal are visible and there are still some hours for the solicitors to talk.
Related readTime is of the essence: settlement dates and extensions in QueenslandThe contract list is the checklist. The buyer walks through with the schedule, confirms that each included chattel is present, that no fixture has been removed unless it was excluded, and that the property is otherwise as it was.
- Before signingBoth lists in the reference schedule are completed and specific. Doubtful items are named one way or the other.
- Before settlementThe buyer uses the single pre-settlement inspection to check the property against the lists.
- At settlementTitle to the included chattels passes, the keys are handed over and the seller's own items must be gone.
Settlement day: title, keys and what is left behind
Clause 5 of the contract ties the loose ends together at settlement. Title to the included chattels passes at settlement, so until that moment they remain the seller's. The seller must hand over the keys, which the contract defines broadly as keys, codes or devices in the seller's possession or control for all locks or security systems on the property or necessary to access the property. Garage remotes, alarm codes and gate fobs are within that definition as much as the front door key.
The seller's own things have to be out. The contract requires the seller to remove the reserved items from the property before settlement and to repair any damage caused by the removal. A seller who unscrews an excluded mirror and leaves holes in the plaster is expected to make them good.
The same provision deals with what a seller leaves. Reserved items not removed before settlement are considered abandoned, and the buyer may appropriate them or dispose of them.
What is left behind at settlement is treated as abandoned
Under the standard contract, reserved items still on the property at settlement are considered abandoned, and the buyer may keep them or dispose of them. A seller has no right under the clause to come back for them.
The rule is tidy for both sides. A buyer is not obliged to store a seller's forgotten furniture. A seller who wants more time to clear the shed needs the buyer's agreement before settlement, not an understanding reached on the driveway afterwards.
When something is missing or broken
If the final inspection shows that an included chattel has gone or a fixture has been removed, the buyer's solicitor raises it with the seller's solicitor before settlement. Most such matters end in one of three ways: the item is returned, the seller agrees to a reduction in the price, or the parties agree that a sum will be held back until the matter is sorted out. Each of those is an agreement between the parties, reached quickly and recorded in writing.
Related readTitles Queensland shuts its Brisbane counter as paperwork moves onlineWhat the buyer generally cannot do is treat a missing appliance as a reason not to settle. Time is of the essence under clause 6.1, the obligation to pay the balance of the price at settlement is an essential term, and the contract nowhere makes a disputed chattel a ground for refusing to complete. A buyer who withholds the price over a refrigerator risks being the party in default over the whole purchase. The claim for the refrigerator survives settlement; the right to delay does not arise from it.
Sellers face the mirror image. Removing an item that should have stayed is a breach that can be pursued after settlement, and the cost of arguing about it usually exceeds the value of the thing taken.
Writing a list that works
The habits that prevent these disputes are simple and belong at the start of the sale. A seller decides before the property is photographed what is staying, and either removes the items being kept or has the agent note them, so the marketing does not promise something the contract will not deliver. A buyer writes down at the inspection the items assumed to be included and compares that note with the schedule before signing.
Both lists are then drafted with enough detail to identify each thing. Where an item is on finance, the seller says so early. Where working order matters, a special condition says which items and to what standard.
The contract's defaults handle the house. The two boxes in the schedule handle the exceptions, and an exception that is not written there does not exist.
The Queensland Government's general advice on contracts of sale applies here as much as anywhere: a buyer should take the contract away, discuss it with a solicitor and not sign under pressure. Ten minutes spent on the inclusions at that point is the cheapest part of the whole transaction.
Kooky, from Shaka
Kooky edits Queensland Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for Queensland property professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.
