General Information

In NSW, estate agents must establish and maintain a trust account that complies with the Property, Stock and Business Agents Act 2002 – Section 111 & 113 and Property, Stock and Business Agents Regulation. The audit of your trust account is regulated by Office of Fair Trading, New South Wales and the due date of qualified reports is by 30 September of each year.

The following people must have their trust accounts audited if they received or held trust money during the financial year ending 30 June 2015:

• a licensee
• a former licensee, or
• a personal representative of a licensee.

The following people must submit an audit of their trust account to the Director-General if they received or held trust money during the financial year ending 30 June, and the auditor’s report was qualified by the auditor:

• a licensee
• a former licensee, or
• a personal representative of a licensee.

The qualified audit must be lodged within 3 months after the end of the audit period. The qualified audit for most agents must be lodged with the Director-General no later than 30 September.

If a qualified trust account audit is not lodged by the due date, licensees could be disqualified from holding a licence and possibly prevented from renewing a licence.

In most cases, it is the licensed corporation that receives and is responsible for trust funds. Therefore, in most cases, a qualified trust account audit must be lodged by the licensed corporation. However, if an individual licensee receives and is responsible for trust money, then a qualified trust account audit must be lodged by the individual licensee.

Note that the auditor is now also required to lodge a copy of the qualified audit with Fair Trading within 14 days after providing the report to the licensee.

Qualified audit report is now defined in the Act as a discovery by the auditor of a breach of the Act or Regulations, any discrepancy relating to the trust account or a failure to keep records in a manner that enables them to be properly audited.

NOTE: You do not need to submit the audit report if it is not qualified.

Visit Fair Trading for more information

Key details:

Audit Period: 1 July to 30 June

Audit Due Date: 30 September

Audit Report submitted to: You do not need to submit the audit report if it is not qualified.

Our Service

We are qualified trust account auditors and can provide independent assurance on the operation of your trust accounts. Our professional team provides their auditing service in a timely and effective manner allowing your firm to fully comply with the regulations without unnecessary hindrance to your staff. Our experienced audit team will:

• Review your practices and procedures.
• Identify potential issues with your trust account.
• Provide you with the necessary audit report.

Our Fixed Fee

We charge a fixed fee as per our Schedule of Fees page.

Utilising best practice approach and with our experience in auditing trust accounts, we are able to employ the most efficient procedure with the value added services to achieve savings to your firm.

Give us a call on 1300 007 673 to speak with one of our fully qualified trust account auditors and benefit from our experience.