SCR forms committee does not want REALTORS® and parties bickering if a contract was accepted and delivered and received at 9:59 am or 10:00 am or 10:01 am.

So, always look to the next day….do not look at a contract formed at 9 am then counting forward an hour later at 10 am.

Contract language.

(D) “Effective Date” – the final date upon which a Party to the negotiation places the final and required signatures and/or initials and date on this Contract and Delivers Notice to cause this Contract to be binding on all Parties.

(E) “Business Day” – a 24 hour period (Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday/Friday) beginning at 10 AM and counted from 10 AM of the first Business Day following the appropriate date (Effective Date, Closing Date, stated date, Notice Delivery date).  Business Days shall not begin, end, or include any Saturday, Sunday, or Federal legal holiday.  

So if the contract was accepted and delivered at received at 9 am (August 1, 2017) then that is the Effective Date.

If August 1, 2017 is the appropriate date (effective date) then 10 am of the first business day following the appropriate date is 10 am on August 2, 2017.

The SCR forms committee did not want REALTORS® and parties getting into disputes over a minute….9:59 am or 10:00 am or 10:01 am.

Granted this issue of bickering over a minute can occur at midnight…11:59 pm and midnight and 12:01 am….but REALTORS® and parties should be asleep then, not delivering contracts and receiving contracts.  So your example would be an issue at midnight…say the sellers accept and deliver the contract and the buyer receives at 11:59 pm on an average Tuesday…then start counting a mere 10 hours later at 10 am the next morning….but if delivered at midnight or 12:01 am…then start counting 34 hours later…

If a Saturday or Sunday or Federal Legal Holiday follow acceptance/delivery/receipt, then do not count any hours on those days.

Also, SCR forms committee intentionally wanted deadlines to skew long instead of short in order to help protect REALTORS® from missing deadlines and getting sued.  Most hotline calls, the REALTORS® under count their deadline…so many times when they call the hotline, the accurate count shows they have time to make a critical deadline.  This is also the reason for using 10 am instead of 9 am…surprisingly, the hotline is often able to take a call at 9:33 am and save a REALTOR® from missing a critical deadline and getting sued.  Some offices are not yet open at 9 am so delivery/receipt is a problem.  Most offices are open by 10 am on a typical weekday workday, so delivery/receipt is less of a problem.