Federal Legal Holidays, Deadlines, and the Residential Sales Agreement
The SCR standard residential sales agreements set various deadlines via a business day count.
To stop arguments about when a document was physically or electronically delivered and received (9:59 am or 10 am or 10:01 am), SCR310 begins the counting of 24 hour periods on the next business day at 10 am.
SCR forms committee selected 10 am as the start and finish time because offices are commonly open for business at 10 am on a workday whereas at 9 am or 5 pm the office doors may be locked…and most certainly the office doors are locked at midnight.
The Business Day count is important and designed to prevent the parties and REALTORS® from unintentionally putting a deadline on a day that is difficult to manage due to weekends and Federal Legal Holidays.
Note, not all religious holidays of many major religions are Federal Legal Holidays.
Any hours on a Saturday or Sunday or Federal Legal Holiday are not counted in the 24 hour count.
Here is the federal law outlining Federal Legal Holidays including how to calculate the current ten days:
- New Years Day, July 4th, Veterans, and Christmas Day may fall on federal non-workdays, so the statute covers what workday will be the holiday.
MLK, Washington, Memorial, Labor, Columbus, and Thanksgiving Day by definition fall on federal workdays.