ABA Family Legal Guide

Buying and Selling a Home

The Steps of Buying and Selling a Home

Making an Offer: The Purchase Contract

What is a lawyer-approval contingency?

One common paragraph in a form offer or added as a rider makes the purchase contract subject to review and approval by the buyer's and the seller's respective lawyers within a short period of time, usually five to ten days after acceptance of the offer. This contingency ensures that the contract need not bind the parties if their lawyers find an unsatisfactory provision. The lawyer-approval contingency usually provides that formal notice of disapproval must be communicated within a set time period. Without such a contingency in the contract, both the seller and the buyer are bound by the terms of the contract upon execution, and those terms may be unclear or may differ from the parties' intent.