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Conveyancing


LEGAL REQUIREMENTS

 


Professional Indemnity Insurance
Trust account
Accounting documents to be kept
Change of details
Business names

 

 

 

 

 

Professional Indemnity Insurance

 

Section 13 of the Act requires all conveyancers to be covered by a policy of professional indemnity insurance approved by the Director to a prescribed minimum amount.

 

The Conveyancing Regulations 2005 set the minimum amount of insurance required at $1million and require conveyancers to annually provide evidence that they are covered by professional indemnity insurance as required by section 13(1) of the Act.

 

You must ensure you are always covered by the appropriate professional indemnity insurance. If for any reason your insurance lapses or is cancelled, your conveyancer’s licence is taken to be suspended.

 

The policy must be in the person individual name or a combination of both their individual and trading name, it can not only be in the trading name.

 

 

 

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Trust account


 

If you are a licensed conveyancer you are required to maintain a trust account in an authorised deposit taking institution and deposit any monies received from your clients into this account.


If you are in any doubt about how to establish a Trust Account please seek independent financial advice.


You must have your trust account audited each financial year and you must provide a annual return to the Director of Consumer Affairs and Fair Trading by 30 September of each year.

 

The annual return should contain the following:

 

  • the name and location of any trust account in which trust money has been deposited
  • the total amount of all contributions to the trust account
  • a statement of the balance of the trust account
  • a report stating whether the conveyancer has, in the opinion of the auditor, kept proper accounting records and other books during the period
  • such statements as are adequate to explain the financial transactions of the trust account both during and at the end of the preceding financial year
  • the report is issued under section 30(3) of the Act

 

 


Audits are to be carried out by a person who is a member of any of the following bodies:

  • the Institute of Chartered Accountants
  • the Australian Society of Certified Practicing Accountants
  • the National Institute of Accountants

 

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Accounting documents to be kept


 

A conveyancer must keep documents which –


(a) correctly record and explain the conveyancer's business transactions and


(b) correctly record and explain the conveyancer's receipts and payments of trust money and


(c) enable the conveyancer's trust accounts and accounting records to be properly audited

 

A conveyancer must keep the documents for a period of 6 years after the date of the last relevant transaction.

 

 

 

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Change of details

 

If there is any change in the following
 

·         full name of the conveyancer

·         in any address of the conveyancer

·         the business name under which the conveyancer carries on business

 

The conveyancer must, within 14 days after the change, notify the Director of the change in writing.

 

 

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Business names

 

Unless your trading name only contains the exact wording of your personal name or is a company registered with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, the Business Names Act 1962 requires the registration of all business names in Tasmania. Any variation or addition to a name must be registered.

 

Please see our page on Registering a Business Name.

 

 

 
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