Business Days vs. Holidays vs. Weekend Days
Scenario #1: The Buyer and Seller finalize their Purchase Agreement tomorrow (July 3). The Inspection Addendum gives the Buyer 5 days to begin the Inspection. What’s the deadline?
Scenario #2: The Buyer and Seller have executed a Contingent Purchase Agreement. The Seller gives the Buyer written notice today (July 2) demanding removal of the Contingency. The Contingency Addendum gives the Buyer 3 days to respond. What’s the deadline?
In both situations above, the key is whether the “days” in question are “regular” days, business days, weekend days, or holidays.
So, in scenario #2, if “3 days” really means 3 days, the deadline would be 11:59 p.m. Saturday (July 5).
However, if it means “business days,” the deadline would be 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday (July 8).
Big difference.
Contract Confusion
Once upon a time, residential real estate contracts and addenda contained a mix of “regular” days and business days, causing great confusion (and more than a few blown deadlines).
To simplify matters, the convention is that “days” now uniformly means “business days.”
Result: the deadlines in the situations above are Friday, July 10; and Tuesday, July 8, respectively.
