Title Tip: How Do You Calculate Contract Deadlines During The Holidays?
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Buying, selling, or just putting a property under contract during the biggest holidays of the year can be a challenge.
Lots of folks are on holiday and work can spill over to colleagues who already have their hands full. Sprinkle on a bit of end-of-year rush to finish financial transactions and it can make for some hot concerns.
One of the issues that could cause your transaction to end up a mess is missing a deadline during the holidays.
Calculate Your Contract Deadlines Correctly
When calculating deadlines, Texas contracts use calendar days, not business days.
Most Texas residential contract deadlines are written as “within ___ days after” the effective date. This means we start counting on the day after the effective date. If the effective date is a Wednesday, then Day 1 is Thursday, Day 2 is Friday, Day 3 is Saturday, etc. Sometimes the language in the contract states “within ___ days after receipt of ___.”
We keep counting the calendar days until we reach the correct number of days on the contract. Unless the contract states otherwise, we always count calendar days, not business days. Calendar days include weekends and holidays.
Weekends And Holidays
While Texas contracts count all calendar days, they make an exception for delivery of earnest money and option fee to the title company. If the deadline day for delivery of those funds falls on a weekend or holiday, the deadline is moved to the next day that is not a weekend or holiday. No other contract deadlines change if the final day falls on a weekend or holiday.
If a seller or buyer has a set number of days to deliver a notice or documents, then holidays don’t matter. Holidays still count as calendar days when computing deadlines. If your final day to deliver something to the other party falls on Christmas Day, then you must still meet that deadline of Christmas Day.
It is important to pay attention to these details to avoid missing a deadline.
Are Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve holidays this year?
When Christmas Day falls on a Saturday, Christmas Eve is treated as a holiday for most federal employees. Many banks and title companies will also recognize December 24th as a day off this year since Christmas falls on a Saturday.
This similarly applies to New Year’s Day. New Year’s Eve is not a federal holiday. However, since January 1, 2022, is on a Saturday, federal employees will see December 31st as the New Year holiday to be observed.
Some businesses may opt to observe a weekend holiday on the following Monday. It’s best to check with that office and see how they are recognizing these weekend holidays. HOA document and survey deliveries may take longer during the holidays. Don’t be a grinch and expect those companies to rush your order while they’re trying to enjoy their eggnog.
Keep in mind that the funding or payoff of a loan only takes place when financial institutions are open. My office will be closed for December 24th but open on December 31st. We will observe the New Year’s holiday on Monday, January 3rd.
Happy Holidays!
