Your purchase offer had a deadline for acceptance. The positive response reaches you after that deadline has expired. You therefore wish to immediately make a binding commitment to another property. Before doing so, the new message must be legally assessed. The date of receipt alone does not in every case justify the conclusion that no binding can arise from the first transaction.
Document dispatch and receipt separately
Our editorial recommendation: Keep the offer, the complete response and any transmission records unchanged. Note when which declaration was sent and actually received. Distinguish a recognisable postal dispatch mark from a mere assertion of having sent it.
For electronic messages, not only the date on which you personally read them is important. Which event is legally to be treated as receipt you should have examined on the basis of the specific transmission method. This article does not define a blanket e‑mail receipt time nor a technical delivery guarantee.
Observe the statutory exception
§862 governs acceptance within the relevant period. §862a bases timeliness on the arrival of the declaration of acceptance within that period. [ANNAHMEFRIST] [SPAETER-ZUGANG]
§862a also contains a special late case: A contract can be concluded despite a late acceptance if the offeror ought to have recognised the timely dispatch and does not immediately give notice of withdrawal. [SPAETER-ZUGANG] For that reason, a recognisably delayed transmission should not simply be filed unanswered while you are already making other arrangements.
Also check the actual wording
Also present the concrete response. It may contain additional conditions or an altered content. This article does not decide whether an appropriate acceptance exists at all, whether contractual form requirements are met, or whether a further declaration is necessary.
Please ask for advice including a joint review of content, deadline, transmission and the necessary reaction. A generic internet template for a “withdrawal” may be unsuitable for that purpose. The statutory term is not presented here as a general, unfettered right of withdrawal from the property purchase at any time.
Fictional case: The second commitment is prepared too early
An interested party receives a postal acceptance after the end of his offer period with references to an earlier dispatch. He wishes to ignore it and to make a binding offer for another flat on the same day. Instead, he immediately presents the complete transaction for review.
The advice must clarify whether the special late case applies and what reaction is necessary for his actual wish. The example asserts neither an already concluded contract nor its failure. It shows why the second commitment should not be based on an unexamined assumption about the deadline.
Communicate the clarified position first
Where appropriate, inform involved contractual and financing parties about the legally clarified result. Until then desire, sent declaration and confirmed contractual status are referred to separately. That way it remains comprehensible why you are preparing a further commitment or initially putting it on hold.