Settlement Day for Sellers
📅 From Unconditional to Settled
Once the agreement goes unconditional, the sale is committed and the remaining work is procedural. That does not make it low risk. Almost everything that goes wrong for a seller between unconditional and settlement is avoidable, and most of it comes down to condition, timing and communication with your lawyer.
What is happening in the background
- Your lawyer prepares the transfer and arranges the discharge of your mortgage.
- The buyer's lawyer prepares their transfer and any new mortgage.
- Rates and any body corporate levies are apportioned between you and the buyer.
- The transfer is registered electronically with Land Information New Zealand through Landonline.
🔎 The Pre-Settlement Inspection
The buyer is entitled to inspect the property before settlement, and you must make it available for that, unless the property is being sold with a tenancy in place. It usually happens in the day or two before settlement.
The purpose is narrow and worth understanding, because misunderstanding it causes friction. The inspection confirms two things: that the property is in the same condition as when the agreement was signed, and that the listed chattels are present and in working order. It is not an opportunity to renegotiate the price, and it is not a second building inspection.
Cost an issue raised at inspection with the pre-settlement inspection defects calculator.
💰 Money on the Day
Settlement is the simultaneous exchange of money and title, coordinated between the two lawyers. As the seller, the sequence looks like this.
Rates apportionment is the line sellers query most. Rates are billed for a period, so at settlement the total is split according to who owned the property on each day of that period. If you have paid the full instalment in advance you are credited for the buyer's share; if you have not, you are debited for yours. Work yours out with the settlement apportionment calculator.
🔑 Vacant Possession and Keys
Unless the property is sold with a tenancy, you must give vacant possession: the property empty of people and of your belongings, available for the buyer to occupy.
- Empty means empty. Rubbish, paint tins and the contents of the garden shed are all yours to remove.
- Leave the property clean and tidy. This is expected even where it is not spelled out.
- Hand over all keys, remotes, alarm codes and any manuals for the chattels.
- Do not disconnect power or water before the day; the buyer needs to test things.
- Take final meter readings and close your accounts effective on the settlement date.
⚠ When Settlement Is Late
Settlement can be delayed from either side, most often because funds have not arrived in time. It is not automatically a crisis, but it is not free either.
If the buyer settles late, the agreement generally entitles you to interest on the unpaid balance at the rate specified in the agreement, for the period of the delay. If you settle late, the same principle runs against you, and if you cannot give vacant possession on the day the consequences can be more serious than interest.
Last in this pathway: whether tax applies to your sale, in the bright-line test guide.
🎯 Test Your Knowledge
Quiz on Settlement Day for Sellers in NZ (10 Questions)
Related guides
- Chattels and what stays, the schedule checked at inspection.
- The sale and purchase agreement, where these obligations are set.
- The bright-line test, tax on the sale, after settlement.
Official New Zealand sources
The rules described on this page come from these bodies. Each link goes to the page used, and each was checked on 15 August 2026.
- Settled.govt.nz, planning for settlement day when selling, the seller's obligations on the day.
- Settled.govt.nz, completing the sale, how settlement is completed.
- Land Information New Zealand, the agency that maintains the title register and Landonline.
This guide explains how the rules work. It is not legal advice about your own sale, and a property lawyer should review any agreement before you sign it.