An irrevocable date (or time) is the deadline in an Agreement of Purchase and Sale during which “the party who made the offer cannot legally revoke it” — the offer stays open and binding-if-accepted until the deadline passes, it is rejected, or a counter-offer replaces it.
Typical lengths track how competitive the market is: as short as “a few hours, or same-day” in hot conditions to pressure a fast decision, versus “24–72 hours or more” where the recipient needs time for legal review. The source is explicit that a lawyer should review any offer before signing, regardless of how the window is set.
If the deadline passes unaccepted, “the offer dies automatically” — the offering party is released, and the other side cannot later purport to accept an expired offer to form a contract. Withdrawal before that point is legally live but riskier than it sounds: once the other party has formally accepted, “a binding contract is formed and revocation is not available”.
Quebec has no term called “irrevocable date,” but the same clock exists under a different name. In Quebec, a promise to purchase runs on an acceptance period, and if the seller does not respond, the promise “becomes null and void, which means that as of the expiry of the time period, the promisor-buyer is no longer bound by the promise to purchase” — the same automatic-expiry mechanic as an Ontario irrevocable date, sourced to Quebec's real-estate regulator, the OACIQ, rather than to provincial contract-law text.
A buyer submits an offer irrevocable until 6 p.m. Thursday. The seller does not respond by the deadline. At 6:01 p.m. the offer is dead: the buyer owes nothing further and the seller has lost the ability to accept it. If the seller tries to sign that same unmodified offer at 6:15 p.m., no contract forms — a fresh offer or a counter-proposal is required to restart the negotiation.
See also: pre-emptive offer and condition precedent.
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