How does attorney review work when buying or selling a house in New Jersey?

Where the three days come from

Attorney review is not a courtesy and it is not a statute. It is a condition the New Jersey Supreme Court attached, in 1983, to the right of real estate licensees to prepare sales contracts at all. The New Jersey State Bar Association, as plaintiff, had sought a court order declaring that various activities of licensed brokers and salespersons were the unauthorized practice of law. The parties settled, and the Superior Court entered a Final Consent Judgment on May 5, 1982. Because the settlement decided what counts as the practice of law, it needed the Supreme Court's approval, which came on June 28, 1983 in New Jersey State Bar Association v. New Jersey Association of Realtor Boards, 93 N.J. 470. A further order of October 28, 1983 adjusted one sentence of the clause and deferred the effective date to January 1, 1984.

The bargain is simple. Licensed brokers and salespersons may prepare contracts for the sale of residential property of one to four dwelling units, and for vacant one-family lots, in transactions in which they have a commission or fee interest, provided every such contract carries a conspicuous warning at the top of the first page and the attorney-review clause in its text. The consent judgment also fixes two things around the clause: the right to attorney review may not be waived, disclaimed or abridged, and nothing in the judgment compels anyone to hire a lawyer.

In 1987 the New Jersey Real Estate Commission wrote the same requirement into its rules as N.J.A.C. 11:5-6.2(g). A licensee who omits the language is treated by the Commission as engaging in the unauthorized practice of law.

Dates from the instruments themselves: 93 N.J. 470 (decided June 28, 1983, reproducing the May 5, 1982 consent judgment as an appendix); 94 N.J. 449 (order of October 28, 1983); N.J.A.C. 11:5-6.2, history note "Amended by R.1987 d.159, effective 4/6/1987 … Added (g)"; Conley v. Guerrero, 228 N.J. 339 (decided April 3, 2017); NJ REALTORS® forms change log entry of 5/5/17; 58 N.J.R. 804–05 (January 20, 2026), R.2026 d.020.

What the clause says

The wording is prescribed, not drafted deal by deal. Every contract a licensee prepares must carry this line at the top of the first page, in print larger than the predominant print of the document: "THIS IS A LEGALLY BINDING CONTRACT THAT WILL BECOME FINAL WITHIN THREE BUSINESS DAYS. DURING THIS PERIOD YOU MAY CHOOSE TO CONSULT AN ATTORNEY WHO CAN REVIEW AND CANCEL THE CONTRACT. SEE SECTION ON ATTORNEY REVIEW FOR DETAILS."

The clause itself has three numbered parts. On study: "The Buyer or the Seller may choose to have an attorney study this contract. If an attorney is consulted, the attorney must complete his or her review of the contract within a three-day period. This contract will be legally binding at the end of this three-day period unless an attorney for the Buyer or Seller reviews and disapproves of the contract."

On counting: "You count the three days from the date of delivery of the signed contract to the Buyer and the Seller. You do not count Saturdays, Sundays or legal holidays. The Buyer and the Seller may agree in writing to extend the three-day period for attorney review."

On disapproval: "If an attorney for the Buyer or the Seller reviews and disapproves of this contract, the attorney must notify the Broker(s) and the other party named in this contract within the three-day period. Otherwise this contract will be legally binding as written." The methods of notice that follow that sentence are the part the Supreme Court rewrote in 2017, set out below.

N.J.A.C. 11:5-6.2(g)(1) and (g)(2), which carry the clause as approved in 93 N.J. 470 at 475–76 and modified by the order at 94 N.J. 449. The same text appears as Section 35 of NJ REALTORS® Form 118. The rule also requires the contract to list "the names and full addresses of all persons to whom a Notice of Disapproval must be sent in order to be effective" (N.J.A.C. 11:5-6.2(g)(3)).

When the clock starts, and what it skips

The period runs from delivery of the signed contract to the buyer and the seller, not from the date anyone signed it. The Appellate Division has held, in a decision the Supreme Court cited with approval in Conley, that the three days begin on the date the signed contract is delivered to a party, not its agents. In that case, Peterson, the buyer had handed the signed contract to the real estate broker, who faxed it to the seller's attorney the next day; the period was measured from delivery to the party.

N.J.A.C. 11:5-6.2(g)(2), "Counting the Time"; Peterson v. Estate of Pursell, 339 N.J. Super. 268 (App. Div. 2001), as described by the Supreme Court in Conley v. Guerrero. The clause does not say whether the day of delivery is itself counted; that is a question for counsel on the facts of a given contract.

How a contract is disapproved

Only an attorney for the buyer or the seller can disapprove, and the attorney must notify both the broker or brokers and the other party within the period. The clause requires nothing more than the notice: it does not require the attorney to give a reason, and it says the attorney "may but need not" also tell the brokers what changes would make the contract acceptable.

From the 1983 judgment until 2017 the prescribed methods were certified mail, telegram or personal delivery. In Conley v. Guerrero a seller's attorney sent the disapproval by e-mail and fax the day before the period expired, and the buyers sued to enforce the contract on the ground that neither method was on the list. The Supreme Court held the notice valid, because the buyers "received actual notice of disapproval within the three-day attorney-review period by a method of communication commonly used in the industry," and then, exercising its constitutional authority over the practice of law, modified the 1983 settlement's clause for contracts going forward.

Conley v. Guerrero, 228 N.J. 339 (2017): "notice of disapproval of a real estate contract may be transmitted by fax, e-mail, personal delivery, or overnight mail with proof of delivery. Notice by overnight mail will be effective upon mailing. The attorney-review period within which this notice must be sent remains three business days." The opinion sets no separate effective moment for fax or e-mail; its holding on the facts rested on actual receipt within the period. NJ REALTORS® recorded the corresponding change to Section 35 of Form 118 on May 5, 2017. The Real Estate Commission has not yet amended the rule: in its rule adoption of January 20, 2026 (58 N.J.R. 804–05) it declined a request to add fax, e-mail and overnight courier to N.J.A.C. 11:5-6.2(g) as beyond the scope of that rulemaking, and said it "anticipates that it will propose amendments that address the issue raised by the commenter in a future rulemaking." The Court modified the clause under its constitutional authority over the practice of law, and the statewide form follows the Court.

What the period is for

Three outcomes are possible, and the clause is built around the last of them. An attorney may approve the contract as written. An attorney may disapprove it outright, which ends it. Or an attorney may disapprove it and at the same time propose the revisions that would make it acceptable, after which the parties agree the changes and the contract becomes binding on the revised terms. The clause permits that last course but does not require it.

Two consequences follow from the wording, both drawn from Appellate Division decisions the Supreme Court summarised in Conley. First, once an attorney has had the opportunity to review the contract and has approved it, with or without changes, the party cannot back out even though the three days have not run. Second, a letter that proposes amendments without clearly disapproving the contract is not a disapproval; in Kutzin v. Pirnie the Supreme Court enforced a contract for exactly that reason.

Either party's attorney may act. The clause gives the power of disapproval to "an attorney for the Buyer or the Seller," and a disapproval by one is enough to prevent a contract from forming.

Romano v. Chapman, 358 N.J. Super. 48 (App. Div. 2003), Levison v. Weintraub, 215 N.J. Super. 273 (App. Div. 1987), and Kutzin v. Pirnie, 124 N.J. 500 (1991), each as described by the Supreme Court in Conley v. Guerrero. The "disapprove and propose revisions" course is the one the clause contemplates when it says the attorney "may but need not" suggest revisions; the statewide form's contingency clocks likewise run from the date "the parties agree to the terms" after a timely disapproval. The clause permits it but does not require it.

If no attorney reviews

The contract becomes legally binding as written at the end of the period. That is the whole point of the design: the three days are a window, and when it closes the contract is what the parties signed. The consent judgment is explicit that no one is compelled to use a lawyer, and equally explicit that the right to attorney review cannot be waived or signed away, so the window is always there whether or not it is used.

The first page of the statewide contract carries a separate notice, in plain terms, that a party without a lawyer cannot change or cancel the contract unless the other party agrees, and that neither the broker nor the title company can change it. Whether to retain counsel is the party's decision; the form is written so that the decision is made knowingly.

N.J.A.C. 11:5-6.2(g)(2), "Otherwise this contract will be legally binding as written"; Final Consent Judgment paragraphs 5 and 6, reproduced at 93 N.J. 470, 481; NJ REALTORS® Form 118, "Notice to Buyer and Seller," page 1.

Attorney review is not the inspection or mortgage contingency

These are routinely run together in conversation and they are different clocks. Attorney review is measured in business days and belongs to the attorneys. The inspection and mortgage contingencies in the statewide contract are measured in calendar days, belong to the buyer, and do not begin until attorney review is over.

NJ REALTORS® Form 118-Statewide, revision 4/17, Sections 3(D), 16(D) and 35. Where the contract was timely disapproved and later agreed, each contingency clock runs instead from the date the parties agree to the terms. Section 8(A) applies the same rule to any addendum whose time periods run from a "final execution date," "acknowledgement date" or similar language. NJ REALTORS® has revised Form 118 several times since 4/17, most recently to revision 07/2025.2; its published change log records no revision to the attorney-review clause in that period, and the day counts and section lettering above should be confirmed against the revision actually signed.

Who prepares, and who reviews

Igor Beyder operates as a New Jersey transaction broker. The Real Estate Commission's own definition, printed in the Consumer Information Statement that N.J.A.C. 11:5-6.9 requires licensees to supply to buyers and sellers, is that "A TRANSACTION BROKER DOES NOT PROMOTE THE INTERESTS OF ONE PARTY OVER THOSE OF THE OTHER PARTY TO THE TRANSACTION," and that such a broker "primarily serves as a manager of the transaction, communicating information between the parties to assist them in arriving at a mutually acceptable agreement and in closing the transaction, but cannot advise or counsel either party on how to gain an advantage at the expense of the other party."

Under the 1983 judgment a licensee with a commission interest may prepare the contract, and a licensed brokerage such as B&Co. Realty may. The review is a different task and it belongs to different people. Each party chooses their own attorney, and that attorney's review, approval, disapproval or proposed revisions are the party's own counsel's work. The statewide contract says the same thing in its own words: names of professionals a broker provides on request are not a recommendation, and the selection is the party's responsibility.

N.J.A.C. 11:5-6.9(e) and (h), Consumer Information Statement, "Transaction Broker"; 93 N.J. 470 at 475, paragraph 1 as modified; NJ REALTORS® Form 118, Section 34, "Professional Referrals."

Related: what a sale actually costs a New Jersey seller once the contract is binding is set out in the closing-cost reference, and how a defensible price is arrived at before the contract is written in how a home is valued.

What this page is not

This is a description of the framework, drawn from the decisions, the rule and the statewide form, and it is not legal advice. It does not address the facts of any particular contract: when a given contract was delivered, whether a given day was a legal holiday, whether a given letter amounted to a disapproval. Those are questions for the buyer's or seller's own attorney, which is the point the framework was built to make.