The irrevocable date in an Ontario real estate offer is the exact date and time by which the offer must be accepted, or it automatically becomes null and void. Until that deadline passes, the party who made the offer cannot withdraw it or change it, which gives the other side a guaranteed window to decide. It is one line in the paperwork, and it quietly controls the pace and pressure of the entire negotiation.
The clause appears in the first section of both OREA Form 100, used for freehold properties, and OREA Form 101, used for condominiums. The language typically reads along these lines: the offer shall be irrevocable by the buyer, or by the seller in the case of a counter-offer, until a stated time on a stated date, after which the offer becomes null and void and the deposit is returned.
There is a piece of old contract law hiding in that clause. Ordinarily, a person can revoke an offer at any time before acceptance. The OREA forms get around that because they are signed under seal, which makes the promise not to revoke enforceable even though the other side gave nothing in exchange for it. Centuries-old doctrine, still doing quiet work in every Toronto offer.
It binds the person making the offer, not the person receiving it. Say a buyer submits an offer with an irrevocable period running until 8:00 p.m. tonight. That buyer cannot pull the offer back before 8:00 p.m., even if a better house hits the market at noon. The seller, meanwhile, stays completely free. They can accept, reject, or sign back a counter-offer at any point inside the window.
If the seller accepts within the irrevocable period, a legally binding contract is formed at that moment. If the deadline passes without acceptance, the offer simply expires on its own. Nobody has to send notice, and neither party owes the other anything.
Here is the nuance that surprises people. Under Ontario contract law, a counter-offer acts as a rejection of the original offer. If a seller takes a buyer's offer and signs it back with a change to the price or any other term, the original offer is dead, regardless of how much irrevocable time remained on it.
That cuts against sellers more often than they realize. A seller who counters at a higher number and gets refused cannot quietly go back and accept the buyer's original price the next morning. Those terms no longer exist as an offer. Reviving them requires the buyer's agreement all over again, and a buyer who slept on it may have cooled. The counter-offer also carries its own fresh irrevocable deadline, and this time it binds the seller.
The length is negotiable, strategic, and unregulated. There is no minimum or maximum set by law.
In a competitive multiple-offer situation, buyers often set a short irrevocable period to push the seller toward a quick decision. The logic is simple. The longer your offer sits open, the longer the listing side can treat your number as a floor while other buyers improve theirs. A tight deadline limits that. On Toronto offer nights, irrevocable times set just a few hours after the scheduled presentation are common for exactly this reason.
Other situations call for patience. A seller who is travelling, or an estate sale where several parties have to agree, may genuinely need 48 hours or longer to respond. Stretching the irrevocable period in those cases is not weakness. It is matching the deadline to how the decision actually gets made. The agents at Advantage Group Real Estate set irrevocable times deal by deal, because the right answer on a quiet relisting is the wrong answer in a six-offer bidding night.
The deadline is specific to the minute, and acceptance has to be communicated back within it under the notice provisions of the form. A seller who signs at 7:58 p.m. but tells nobody until morning is inviting an argument about whether a contract was ever formed. Careful agents confirm delivery in writing well inside the window, precisely so nobody ends up litigating a timestamp.
Understanding the irrevocable date is really about understanding the offer process as a whole. For a broader look at the document itself, see our guide to the Agreement of Purchase and Sale. This guide is part of the Advantage Group Real Estate Learning Centre and was reviewed by Jeremy Van Caulart, broker and team leader with Royal LePage Signature Realty in Toronto.
\nNo. The OREA forms are signed under seal, so the promise to keep the offer open is enforceable, and the buyer is bound until the stated time passes. The seller remains free to accept at any point inside that window, and acceptance forms a legally binding contract on the spot.
\nThe offer has already become null and void on its own, and the deposit is returned. A late signature does not revive it. In practice, a late acceptance amounts to a new offer on the same terms, which the buyer is free to accept, renegotiate, or ignore entirely.
\nNo. A counter-offer is a rejection that kills the original offer regardless of how much irrevocable time remained, and the original terms cannot be revived without the other party's agreement. The counter-offer sets its own new irrevocable deadline, which binds whoever made the counter.
\nRelated reading: What Is an Agreement of Purchase and Sale in Ontario Real Estate?, What Is a Firm Offer in Ontario Real Estate?, and How Do Competing Offers Work in Ontario Real Estate?
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