South Australian conveyancers: registration, trust money and discipline

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Kooky

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A vendor and a purchaser in South Australia hand a conveyancer two things they cannot easily check for themselves: the documents that move the title, and for a short time the money that pays for it. The state answers that trust with a single statute, the Conveyancers Act 1994, a set of regulations that commenced on 7 August 2025, and the Commissioner for Consumer Affairs, who administers the Act. The public guidance is published by Consumer and Business Services.

This guide follows the system from one end to the other: who has to be registered, what an applicant must show and pay, what keeps a registration alive each year, how client money is banked, recorded and audited, what the compulsory insurance covers, when one conveyancer may act for both sides, how the indemnity fund compensates a loss, and where a complaint is heard. Every rule described here is South Australian.

Fee as listed on the South Australian Government's conveyancers page, updated 14 September 2026; penalty from section 5 of the Conveyancers Act 1994; sum insured from the scheme wording for 31 May 2026 to 31 May 2027.

Who has to be registered

The Conveyancers Act 1994 defines a conveyancer as a person, other than a legal practitioner, who carries on a business that involves preparing conveyancing instruments for fee or reward. The instruments are those defined in the Real Property Act 1886, the statute behind the state's land titles register. The South Australian Government's conveyancers page puts the same test in plain words: registration is needed by anyone who prepares legal documents when property is transferred to a new owner. Legal practitioners, it adds, do not need to register.

Section 5 forbids a person to carry on business as a conveyancer, or to hold themselves out as one, without being registered. The maximum penalty for a natural person is A$50,000 for a first or second offence, and A$50,000, 12 months' imprisonment or both for a third or later offence. For a body corporate the maximum is A$250,000.

A second consequence of working unregistered appears much later in the Act and falls on the client. Under section 32, no claim lies against the indemnity fund where the person knew, or ought to have known, that the conveyancer was unregistered when instructing them.

A Consumer and Business Services fact sheet dated September 2025 describes the route for people based elsewhere. A conveyancer whose principal place of residence is in another state or territory may work in South Australia on the home registration under automatic mutual recognition. Someone who moves to South Australia must hold a South Australian registration.

The tests an applicant has to meet

Section 7 of the Act sets out who is entitled to be registered. For a natural person there are six conditions. The applicant must hold the qualifications prescribed, or those the Commissioner considers appropriate. The applicant must not have been convicted of an indictable offence of dishonesty, nor of a summary offence of dishonesty in the 10 years before the application. The applicant must not be suspended or disqualified from practising or carrying on a business under a relevant law, and must not be an insolvent under administration. There is a rule about failed companies, which the government page states as follows: a person cannot register if they were a director of a company wound up to pay creditors in the last five years, and that includes someone who was a director in the six months before the winding up started. Last, the applicant must be a fit and proper person.

The first five conditions are matters of record; the sixth is a judgment the Act leaves to the Commissioner. Under section 7A the applicant may ask for written reasons and may seek a review by the South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal within one month.

On qualifications, Consumer and Business Services publishes guidelines, in a version dated July 2026, that list ten options accepted under section 7(1)(a)(ii). The current vocational route is the Advanced Diploma of Conveyancing, code BSB60220, held together with six named units. Earlier versions of the advanced diploma, coded BSB61115 and FNS60311, are accepted with their own unit lists, as are older Certificate IV in Conveyancing awards combined with specified units, and the Land Broking Certificate. Three university awards complete the list: a Bachelor of Business (Property), a Bachelor of Business in Property and a Graduate Diploma in Property, each with specified subjects.

Companies: who may sit on the board

A company can be registered as a conveyancer, and here the Act looks through the company to the people behind it. No director may carry the convictions or disqualifications that would bar an individual, each director must be fit and proper, and the company itself must not be in liquidation, under official management or in receivership.

Section 7 then regulates the company's constitution. Its sole object must be to carry on business as a conveyancer. Most of the voting rights must be held by registered conveyancers who are directors or employees. The government page describes the board rule this way: a company with more than one director must have a majority of directors who are registered conveyancers, and at least two of them; in a company with exactly two directors, one must be a conveyancer.

The other director of a two-person company is where the Act draws a line between trades. A "prescribed person" may not be a director and may not own shares or a right to profits. Prescribed persons are land agents, financiers and their close associates, unless they are registered conveyancers themselves or certain relatives of a conveyancer director. The government page describes the first group as real estate agents.

Running the company brings further duties. Under section 9A a registered company must make sure its business is properly managed and supervised by a registered conveyancer who is a natural person. Under section 9B a director or manager who directs or incites a conveyancer or an employee to act unlawfully, improperly, negligently or unfairly commits an offence, and so does the company. Sections 10 and 11 require the constitution to keep complying with the Act. Each of these carries a maximum penalty of A$20,000. Section 13 adds a civil consequence: the liabilities of a registered company can be enforced jointly and severally against the company and the people who were its directors when the liability was incurred.

Applying: documents and published fees

An application goes to the Commissioner in the approved form with the prescribed fee, and section 6 requires evidence of identity, age and address. The government page says applications must include a National Police Certificate dated no more than 12 months before the application. An interstate applicant who is not using mutual recognition must show an intention to work as a conveyancer in South Australia.

A worked example shows how the fees add up. Assume two newly qualified conveyancers each apply as individuals and also apply to register a company in which both are directors. Two individual fees of A$864 make A$1,728; with the body corporate fee of A$1,105 the three applications come to A$2,833. The figures are illustrative and assume no waiver. Regulation 4 of the Conveyancers Regulations 2025 allows the Commissioner to waive, reduce or refund a fee in a particular case.

If the Commissioner needs more from an applicant, section 6 allows a notice giving at least 28 days to comply. An applicant who does not comply may be refused, and the fee may be kept.

Staying registered: the yearly return

Registration does not run for a fixed term. Under section 8 it continues until it is surrendered or cancelled, or until the conveyancer dies or, for a company, is dissolved. What keeps it alive is a yearly obligation: pay the annual fee and lodge a return. The government page describes this as renewing every year, and warns that a conveyancer whose registration expires has to apply again. The amount of the annual fee is not given on that page.

The date is set by regulation 5 of the 2025 Regulations. The fee and return are due on or before the last day of a month nominated in writing by the Commissioner. If no month has been nominated, the date is the last day of the month in which registration was granted. Before that date the conveyancer must also give evidence of insurance, or evidence that none will be required for the next 12 months.

Missing the date does not cancel registration by itself. Section 8 has the Commissioner serve a written notice requiring the default to be made good. If the notice has not been complied with 28 days after it was served, the registration is cancelled, and the Commissioner must tell the conveyancer so in writing.

Between returns, the Regulations require notice of changes within 14 days: a change of name or address, ceasing business, a change in a partnership, a new company director. The maximum penalty is A$2,500 and the expiation fee, the fixed sum that settles the matter without a court, is A$160. The government page adds that a conveyancer must tell the regulator within 14 days of committing an offence or of having legal restrictions placed on their work or business. Under section 9AA, if events occur that would have stopped the conveyancer from qualifying, the Commissioner may cancel or suspend the registration or attach conditions.

Professional indemnity insurance

Section 9 of the Act requires anyone carrying on business as a conveyancer to be insured as the Regulations require. The sanction is automatic: registration is suspended for any period in which the insurance is not in place. Regulation 8 lets the Commissioner approve a scheme built on a master policy, makes an approved scheme binding on the conveyancers and insurers it covers, and requires it to be published online. The Regulations set no minimum amount; the amount is in the approved scheme. The Consumer and Business Services fact sheet says employees do not usually need their own cover where the employer's covers them.

The scheme wording published for 2026 names AAI Limited, trading as Vero Insurance, as the insurer under a master contract agreed with the Australian Institute of Conveyancers (SA Division), for the period from 4pm on 31 May 2026 to 4pm on 31 May 2027. The sum insured is A$1.5 million unless a certificate shows a higher amount. Within the scheme sit a fidelity sub-limit of A$350,000 and a representation costs cover limited to A$150,000.

The excess is A$5,000 a claim. The wording sets conditions under which it is waived. It rises to A$15,000 where the conveyancer acted for both parties to the transaction, three times the standard figure and A$10,000 more.

Among the exclusions, conveyancing of property outside South Australia is not covered, and neither are mortgage broking, property management or real estate agency activities. The wording also provides run-off cover for former conveyancers.

The 2026 wording still refers to the Conveyancers Regulations 2010, which were repealed when the 2025 Regulations commenced on 7 August 2025; a transitional rule keeps existing approved schemes in effect.

Trust money: the account and the records

The Act defines trust money as money a conveyancer receives on behalf of another person in connection with a dealing with land, to which the conveyancer is not wholly entitled. Money received for mortgage financing is excluded from the definition.

Section 15 makes three rules, each with a maximum penalty of A$20,000. Trust money must be paid into an account approved by the Commissioner, kept in the conveyancer's name at an authorised deposit-taking institution; the regulator's fact sheet describes that as a bank, building society or credit union. No other money may be paid into the account. Nothing may be withdrawn except as the Act allows, and section 16 lists the permitted withdrawals: payment to the person entitled, payment of commission or costs, compliance with an order of a court or the Tribunal, payment into court, and unclaimed money dealt with under the Unclaimed Moneys Act 1891.

The interest does not go to the client or the conveyancer. Under section 17 the institution pays it to the Commissioner, and regulation 10 fixes the days: 15 January, 15 April, 15 July and 15 October, or the fifteenth of each month. That interest is the first source of the indemnity fund described below.

The Regulations then go into the bookkeeping. Receipts come from pre-numbered duplicate forms marked "Trust Account" and are issued immediately. Trust money is never paid out in cash, on pain of a penalty of up to A$2,500. Cheques are crossed and marked "Not negotiable". A cash receipts book, a cash payments book and a separate ledger for each client are kept, with entries generally made within two business days. The books are reconciled against the account balance at the end of every month. Electronic records are copied within 24 hours of any alteration and at least monthly, and stored off-site. Fees or costs taken from trust money are moved to the office account as soon as practicable, and within three months. Section 23 of the Act requires the records to be kept for at least five years and a statement to be supplied on request.

The audit, and how its dates are counted

Section 24 requires a conveyancer who holds a trust account to have it audited for each audit period and to lodge the auditor's statement. Failing to do so carries a maximum penalty of A$20,000 and, as with the annual return, a notice that leads to cancellation if it is not complied with within 28 days. A conveyancer who held no trust money, or kept no trust account, during the period lodges a declaration instead, and the regulator's fact sheet says the declaration must give the reasons.

Regulation 19 ties the audit to the annual return. The audit period ends two months before the next annual return date, unless the Commissioner fixes another date, and the statement or declaration is lodged within two months after the period ends.

A different nominated month, or a date fixed by the Commissioner, moves the whole calendar.

The auditor must be independent of the practice. Regulation 23 excludes a current employee or partner of the conveyancer, anyone who was one in the previous two years, an employee of another conveyancer, and any conveyancer. An auditor who finds a discrepancy must report it. The single tolerance is small: inadvertent losses that were promptly put right and total no more than A$100 in any three-month period need not be reported. When a practice closes, an audit on cessation follows, with the statement lodged within four months.

Behind the audit stand stronger powers. A deposit-taking institution must report a deficiency in a trust account within 14 days. The Commissioner may appoint an examiner, an administrator to take control of a trust account, and a temporary manager, for up to 12 months at a time, to finish the urgent or uncompleted business of a practice.

Acting for both the vendor and the purchaser

One conveyancer preparing the documents for both sides of a sale is the case the system treats with most caution. The Consumer and Business Services fact sheet states the rule in two sentences. A conveyancer may act for both parties only in certain circumstances, such as when the parties are related or in a business partnership. And a conveyancer must not act for both if there is a conflict of interest.

The sections of the Conveyancers Act 1994 and of the Conveyancers Regulations 2025 read for this article set out no rule on the point. The state has a separate statute on the sale of land and businesses, the Land and Business (Sale and Conveyancing) Act 1994. That statute could not be consulted for this guide, so the statutory wording, the full list of permitted cases and any penalties are not set out here.

Whether a particular transaction falls inside a permitted case depends on the parties and on the wording of the law.

The indemnity fund: when client money is lost

Part 4 of the Act sets up an indemnity fund. Section 31 names its sources: the interest paid on conveyancers' trust accounts, money recovered after a fiduciary default, and the fines imposed in disciplinary proceedings. The same section lets the fund pay for investigations, disciplinary proceedings, prosecutions, the cost of administrators and approved education.

A person who suffers a pecuniary loss through a conveyancer's fiduciary default may claim on the fund. Section 32 limits the claim to the actual loss plus reasonable legal costs, less anything recovered elsewhere. Under section 34 the Commissioner may require the claimant to pursue other means of recovery first. The sections read set no general deadline, but under section 33 the Commissioner may publish a notice fixing a date, at least three months after publication, by which claims arising from a particular default must be made; a later claim is barred unless the Tribunal orders otherwise.

The Regulations give the claimant some certainty about process. The written notice acknowledging a claim carries a unique reference number. The Commissioner must report on progress within six months of the claim and every six months after that until it is determined. A claimant unhappy with the outcome may ask the Tribunal to review it within three months.

Interest runs from the first anniversary of the day the claim was lodged, at the 5 per cent a year set by regulation 26. As a worked example, assume a claim of A$40,000 is paid exactly two years after lodgment and that interest is simple. One year carries interest: 5 per cent of A$40,000 is A$2,000, for a total of A$42,000.

Two limits complete the picture. If the fund cannot meet all claims, section 42 provides for payments to be reduced proportionately. And once a claim is paid, the Commissioner takes over the claimant's rights against the person at fault. The fund's accounts are audited by the Auditor-General.

Complaints and discipline

Disciplinary proceedings are heard by the South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, which may sit with assessors. Section 46 opens the door widely: the Commissioner or any other person may lodge a complaint.

The grounds are listed in section 45. They include registration that was improperly obtained, a breach of an assurance given under the Fair Trading Act 1987, acting contrary to the Act, and acting unlawfully, improperly, negligently or unfairly in the course of the business. A conveyancer responsible for supervising others can be disciplined for a failure there, and a director or manager convicted under section 9B is exposed too. So is anyone who is no longer entitled to be registered.

If the Tribunal finds cause, section 49 lets it reprimand the conveyancer, impose a fine, attach conditions to the registration, suspend or cancel it, disqualify the person from being registered, and prohibit a person from being employed in a conveyancer's business or from being a director of a conveyancing company. Fines are paid into the indemnity fund, so the money returns to the pool that compensates clients.

A prosecution for an offence against the Act must be started within two years of the alleged offence, or within five years if the Minister authorises it. Giving false or misleading information under the Act is an offence in its own right, with a maximum of A$10,000 where the statement was made knowingly and A$2,500 otherwise.

In South Australia the interest on clients' money, and the fines paid by conveyancers, fund the pool that makes a client whole.

Kooky, from Shaka

Kooky edits Agents Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for real estate professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.

About Kooky and Shaka →