When a home does not sell: ending an appointment and starting again

In this article

Written by

Kooky

Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.

About Kooky and Shaka →

Most writing about selling a home stops at the sold sticker. A fair number of campaigns stop somewhere else: the last open home draws two groups, the one written offer is well short, and the date on the agent's appointment is a fortnight away. Nothing has gone wrong in a legal sense. The home has simply not sold, and the seller now has a set of decisions that nobody explained at the listing presentation.

It is a more common position this spring than it was a year ago. Cotality's Home Value Index for September, published on 1 October 2026, put Brisbane's sales over the previous three months 27.2 per cent below the same period a year earlier, the sharpest annual drop of any capital. Across the combined capitals, the same release gave a median time to sell of 39 days, up from 23 a year before.

This guide follows a residential seller from that point. It covers how a sole or exclusive appointment comes to an end under the Property Occupations Act 2014, what the seller still owes once it has, and what each of the roads out involves: the same agent again, a different agent, a new price or method, a break from the market, or a tenant in the meantime. It describes the general rules. The appointment the seller actually signed decides the detail, and a solicitor is the person to read it.

Queensland Government page on appointing a real estate sales agent, updated 19 July 2024, and the reappointment rule in section 110 of the Property Occupations Act 2014 as set out in an REIQ article of 10 December 2024.

The 90-day limit, and what happens on the last day

The Queensland Government's page on appointing a real estate sales agent, last updated on 19 July 2024, states the starting rule plainly: a sole or exclusive agency over a home runs for a maximum of 90 days. If nobody acts, the appointment ends at the end of the term the seller and agent agreed, which may be shorter than 90 days but not longer.

The Act treats that ceiling seriously. In a 2016 decision of the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal, EIT Pty Ltd t/a PRWR v AMR, the tribunal set out section 112: a sole or exclusive appointment for the sale of residential property is ineffective from the time it is made if its term is longer than 90 days, unless it is a commercial-scale appointment. An REIQ article of 10 December 2024 by Heidi Bayles, special counsel at Carter Newell, draws the practical conclusion for agents. The whole appointment fails, not only the days past the ninetieth, so the days are counted exactly and three calendar months is not assumed to be 90.

The end date is written in Part 4 of the Form 6, according to the REIQ, and the same tribunal decision notes that section 108 requires a sole or exclusive appointment to state the day it ends. A seller who cannot remember the date will find it there.

What happens the day after depends on one further line of the form, covered below: whether the appointment simply stops, or carries on as an open listing.

Ending early: 30 days' notice and a 60-day floor

A seller does not always want to wait for the end date. The government page gives the rule for leaving early. Where the term of a sole or exclusive agency is longer than 60 days, either the seller or the agent may end it, but the party ending it must give at least 30 days' written notice, and the appointment must stay in effect for at least 60 days. The Queensland Law Handbook adds that the two sides may agree to an earlier end date.

Two consequences follow. First, a term of 60 days or less has no early exit by notice: it runs to its date unless both sides agree otherwise. Second, on a longer term the notice does not buy much time unless it is given early. The table works through a 90-day term.

An REIQ article of 20 May 2024 on ending management appointments makes two points about notice under a Form 6 that are worth knowing in a sale as well. An immediate end is possible where both sides agree in writing. And during a notice period the agent must keep acting in the client's best interests and following lawful instructions. An appointment under notice is still an appointment.

Open listings and the appointment that carries on

An open listing is the simple case. The government page says either party can cancel one at any time by written notice. There is no minimum term and no 30 days. A seller with two or three agents on open listings can end any of them with a letter or an email.

The less obvious case is the sole or exclusive agency that has reached its end date. The government page notes that an ended sole or exclusive agency can continue as an open listing if the form says so. The tribunal decision cited above points to the source of that option: section 108(3) of the Act allows an appointment to provide that, at the end of the term, it continues as an open listing that may be ended at any time by the client or the agent.

That provision is easy to miss and it changes the picture. If the box was completed that way, the first agent is still appointed after day 90, on open terms, until someone ends it in writing. The seller is free to appoint others, and under an open listing commission goes only to the agent who sells the property, as the government page puts it. But the first agent still has authority to market the home and to introduce buyers, and a second agent arriving on a sole or exclusive agency will want to know that the first appointment has been closed.

Reappointing the same agent

Many sellers conclude that the agent was not the problem. The buyer pool was thin, the price was a stretch, or the timing was poor, and the agent who knows the home and its feedback is the best person to continue. The Act allows this, within limits.

According to the REIQ article of 10 December 2024, section 110 provides that a residential sole or exclusive agency may be renewed for one or more further terms of not more than 90 days each, and that reappointing the agent earlier than 14 days before the term ends is an offence for which the reappointment itself is ineffective. The point of the rule is that a seller is not asked to commit to a second term on the day the first one starts. The decision is made near the end, with the campaign's results in hand.

An earlier REIQ article, dated 1 May 2024 and written by Casey Cossu, describes how it is done in practice. The reappointment is Part 10 of the same Form 6. It is completed in the final 14 days, while the original appointment has not yet expired, and the new period starts the day after the old one ends. The article says the reappointment must be for the same length of time as the original term and must leave the original terms unchanged.

That last condition matters to a seller who wants to continue on different terms. If the commission, the fees or the marketing arrangements are to change, the REIQ says a new Form 6 is needed, not a Part 10 reappointment. The same is true if the term is to be a different length. A seller who wants a shorter second run, 45 days after an original 90, is signing a new appointment, with the pre-appointment discussion that goes with it.

What is still owed when the term ends

The end of an appointment stops the agent's authority. It does not wipe the account.

Marketing is the first item. The Office of Fair Trading's page on commissions, updated 29 October 2020, says a seller reimburses only the expenses that were discussed and agreed in advance, that money paid ahead sits in the agent's trust account, and that reimbursement is limited to receipted amounts. Section 104 of the Act, reproduced in the tribunal decision cited above, requires the appointment to state the fees, charges and commission and when they become payable. So whether advertising is owed on booking, on invoice or only on a sale is answered by the form the seller signed, and in many appointments agreed marketing is payable whether or not the home sells. A detailed statement of what was spent is a reasonable thing to ask for when the campaign closes.

Commission is the second, and it is where sellers are most often surprised. Under the Act, the appointment sets the terms. Where the agency used the REIQ's standard terms, the December 2024 article explains that clause 5 makes commission payable if a contract of sale is entered into with a buyer within or after the term, provided the agent was the effective cause of the sale within the term and the clause's other conditions are met. The word "after" is the one to notice. A buyer who inspected in week six and returns with an offer a month after the appointment expired may still produce a commission for the first agent, if the agent's work during the term was what brought the sale about.

The end date ends the agent's authority to sell. It does not, by itself, end the agent's claim to a sale the campaign produced.

Whether an agent was the effective cause is a question of fact in each case, as the same article says. What matters here is the practical consequence: at the end of a campaign, the list of people who inspected, enquired or made offers is a document with legal weight. Not every appointment uses the REIQ terms, which is why the general rule cannot be taken further without the form itself.

One protection runs the other way. The tribunal decision records section 89 of the Act: an agent cannot sue for, or keep, a reward or expense unless the agent was licensed and properly appointed under the Act when the service was performed.

Changing agent without paying twice

A change of agent is the most common fresh start, and the one with the most to get right. The government page is direct about the risk: a seller who cancels incorrectly and then sells through another agent may have to pay two commissions, and it suggests independent legal advice to make sure the cancellation is done properly.

The danger differs by appointment type. Under an exclusive agency, the first agent is paid whoever sells during the term, so a second agent's sale inside that term means two bills. Under a sole agency the seller's own sale is carved out, but another agent's is not. In both cases the exposure ends only when the first appointment has ended in the way the Act and the form allow.

The third step is the one that prevents arguments. If a buyer from the first campaign comes back, both agents may say the sale is theirs. A new appointment can address this in advance, for instance by naming buyers the first agent introduced. How that is worded is a matter for the seller's solicitor and the two agencies, and it is far easier to settle before a contract than after one. Where two agents do cooperate on a sale, the Office of Fair Trading's commissions page notes that the seller pays one commission and the agents divide it.

Parting is usually amicable. Where it is not, the government page sets out an order: put the complaint to the agent in writing, with the remedy sought; ask the REIQ for advice if the agent is a member; then make a formal complaint to the Office of Fair Trading.

A new price, a new method, or both

Price is the first lever most sellers consider. The government page records the rule that sits behind any price an agent suggests: the agent must prepare a comparative market analysis using at least three comparable properties sold within five kilometres in the last six months or, failing that, give written market advice with reasons. Nothing confines that analysis to the day of listing. A seller at the end of a 90-day term is entitled to ask for a fresh one, because three months of new sales now exist, and Cotality recorded a 1.5 per cent fall in Brisbane dwelling values in September alone, so the comparables may have moved.

Method is the second lever. A home that drew no bids at auction may suit a priced private treaty campaign; a home that sat at a fixed price may suit an auction or a tender with a deadline. A change of method is a change to the appointment. The tribunal decision notes that section 107 requires an auction appointment to state the day set for the auction, and the REIQ's position that altered terms need a new Form 6 applies here too. A switch of method is therefore a moment when the seller signs again and can renegotiate the term, the fee and the marketing at the same time.

What a fresh listing resets, and what it does not

A common hope is that a new listing, with new photographs and a new agent, makes the home look new. It can refresh the presentation. It is less certain that it erases the record.

Listings are counted and stored by more than the agency that placed them. SQM Research, for example, defines its stock on market measure as residential properties advertised online during the month, including those advertised and then withdrawn. That figure describes the market as a whole, not one home, but it shows that an advertisement leaves a trace beyond the agency that placed it.

How much of that an ordinary buyer sees on a public portal is set by each portal's own rules, which differ and change. Whether a relisted home shows its earlier asking price, its earlier photographs or a reset day counter is a question to put to the agent taking the new listing, who can show the seller the page as a buyer would see it. The safer working assumption is that a serious buyer will know the home has been on the market before, and that the new campaign needs an answer to the obvious question: what has changed.

Withdrawing from the market

Not selling is also a decision. Some sellers take the home off the market for a season; others decide to stay.

Withdrawing a listing does not end an appointment. If the term is still running, the agent remains appointed until the end date, the end of a notice period, or a written agreement to finish early. A seller who takes the photographs down in week eight and sells to a neighbour in week eleven is, under an exclusive agency, in the position the government page describes: commission is owed to the agent regardless of who sells. Under a sole agency the seller's own sale is treated differently, and the wording of the form decides whether a particular buyer counts as the seller's own. The commission tail described earlier applies in the same way after a withdrawal as after an expiry.

A seller disclosure scheme has applied since 1 August 2025, as the government's selling pages note, and its documents are prepared before a buyer signs. A seller returning to the market months later can expect the conveyancer to check whether the documents prepared for the first campaign still describe the property before they are given to a new buyer.

Letting the home while it waits

A vacant home that has not sold is an expense, and renting it is the usual answer. It is also a commitment that shapes the next sale.

Letting is a different service from selling, and the Act requires an appointment to set out each service the agent is to perform. An agency that is to find a tenant and manage the home needs an appointment that says so, with its own fees. The REIQ's May 2024 article notes that such an appointment is ended on 30 days' written notice, and that ending it does not end the tenancy.

The tenancy is the part to think through before signing. The Residential Tenancies Authority's page on notice periods says an owner must give two months' notice to end a general tenancy because of a sale contract, and that this ground cannot be used to end a fixed term agreement early. A seller who signs a 12-month lease in November has, in practice, decided that any sale before the following November will be to a buyer who accepts the tenant, unless the tenant agrees in writing to leave.

Marketing a tenanted home has its own rules. The Authority's page on open houses and viewings says an open house can be held only with the tenant's written agreement. Without it, the owner or agent may arrange individual viewings by giving an entry notice on Form 9 with at least 48 hours' notice, one notice for each entry, at reasonable times and not on Sundays or public holidays unless the tenant agrees. Marketing photographs should not show the tenant's belongings without written consent.

A short fixed term keeps the next campaign closer. A long one turns the home into an investment property for the time being, with a different buyer in mind when it returns to the market.

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.

About Kooky and Shaka →