Contingency Removal and the Bump Clause: Keeping WA Deals Alive

Why Removal Is the Pressure Point of Every WA Deal

A contingency is a condition that lets a buyer walk without losing earnest money. Inspection, financing, title, and the sale of the buyer's current home are the four that decide most Western Washington transactions. As long as a contingency is live, your client has an off-ramp and the other side has uncertainty. The moment it is removed, the deal hardens.

Managing removal is the part of the job that separates closers from order-takers. Miss a clock and you either expose your buyer to a forfeited deposit or hand your seller a contingent deal they can no longer enforce. Get the timing and the paper right and you convert a fragile mutual acceptance into a transaction that actually funds.

The Four Contingencies and Their Default Clocks

Inspection runs on NWMLS Form 35, defaulting to 10 calendar days from mutual acceptance. Financing runs on Form 22A, defaulting to 21 calendar days. Title review runs on Form 22T, defaulting to 5 business days. The sale-of-home contingency runs on Form 22E, where the buyer's purchase depends on selling their existing property, and it is the contingency a bump clause is built to manage.

Day-counting is where deals quietly die. Under RCW 1.16.050, any period of 5 days or fewer excludes weekends and Washington state holidays, while periods longer than 5 days are counted as calendar days. That means a 5-business-day title window stretches across a holiday weekend, but a 10-day inspection period does not. Confirm every date against the actual contract language and the current NWMLS forms, because negotiated variants override every default above.

When you are juggling several deals at once, the math is unforgiving and easy to fumble between showings. SENTINEL computes these deadlines deterministically from the mutual acceptance date so the inspection, financing, title, and disclosure dates land on the calendar instead of in your head.

Affirmative vs Passive Removal: Get It in Writing

Contingencies clear one of two ways. Affirmative removal means the party signs a waiver or notice confirming the condition is satisfied or released. Passive removal means the deadline simply passes and the contingency expires by operation of the contract. Both can be valid, but they protect you very differently.

Always push for the signed waiver. A passively expired contingency invites a he-said-she-said fight about whether notice was timely, whether an extension was implied, or whether the contingency was even understood to lapse. A countersigned amendment removes that ambiguity and protects you as the agent if a client later claims they were never told the window closed. Paper beats memory every time a transaction goes sideways.

Track the seller-disclosure clock separately, because it does not behave like the four contingencies above. Under RCW 64.06, the seller delivers Form 17, the seller disclosure statement, within 5 business days of mutual acceptance, and the buyer then has 3 business days from receipt to rescind. The buyer exercises that right by affirmative written notice inside the window, not by waiting it out, and the period runs from the delivery and receipt dates, so document exactly when Form 17 was delivered and received.

The Bump Clause from Both Sides

A bump clause lives inside a Form 22E sale-of-home contingency and lets a seller keep an already-accepted, contingent deal on the market. If a stronger offer arrives, the seller 'bumps' the contingent buyer by giving written notice, and that buyer must either waive their sale-of-home contingency within the agreed window, typically a few business days, or release the property. It forces a clean perform-or-release decision instead of letting a contingent deal tie up a listing indefinitely.

As the listing agent, the bump clause is your insurance. It keeps showings on, keeps backup interest warm, and turns a soft contingent contract into leverage. Set the notice period and the waiver deadline explicitly in the addendum, and document every bump notice with a timestamp so the perform-or-release clock is unarguable.

As the buyer's agent, the bump clause is the risk you have to price for your contingent client. Before they sign, make sure they understand they can be bumped, know exactly how long they will have to respond, and have a realistic plan, bridge financing, a fast-moving listing, or a willingness to remove the contingency, so a bump notice does not catch them flat. Negotiate the longest reasonable response window you can and confirm how notice must be delivered.

Notice to Perform: Form 51 as the Enforcement Lever

Deadlines are only as strong as your willingness to enforce them. When a party blows past a contractual date, NWMLS Form 51, the Notice to Perform or Terminate, is the lever. It puts the non-performing party on written notice that they must complete the required action within a stated period or the contract may be terminated. It converts a passed deadline into a documented, actionable demand.

Use it deliberately, not reflexively. A Form 51 is a formal step, so coordinate with your broker and confirm the underlying deadline actually lapsed under the correct calendar rule before you serve it. Served correctly, it protects your client's position; served carelessly off a miscounted date, it can put your own side in breach. Track the deal clock, confirm the lapse, then enforce.