July 2017
All settlement agents (agents) who have held or received monies in trust during the past financial year are required to submit an annual audit report.
Agents who have not held or received monies in trust during the audit period should submit a Statutory Declaration (Declaration of no receipt of trust funds) in lieu of an audit report.
The annual audit report or statutory declaration for the year 1 July 2016 to 30 June 2017, or part thereof, must be submitted to the Commissioner for Consumer Protection (Commissioner), by 5pm on 30 September 2017.
Agents need to be aware that failing to cause the annual audit to occur or failing to provide the statutory declaration of ‘no receipt of trust funds’ is an offence and a range of enforcement options are available to the Commissioner. Some of these options include a formal warning, infringement or even a prosecution.
An infringement notice may also be considered where an audit report or statutory declaration of ‘no receipt of trust funds’ is received after the 30 September 2017 deadline.
Submit your audit by email
Agents and auditors are encouraged to submit their audit reports and statutory declarations via email to: audits@demirs.wa.gov.au.
You are not required to submit a hard copy of your audit report or statutory declaration if you have submitted it electronically.
Alternatively, the audit report or statutory declaration can be posted to The Commissioner for Consumer Protection, Locked Bag 14 Cloisters Square Perth 6850.
Information regarding the requirements for the audit report or statutory declaration can be found in the recently updated publication A guide to auditing trust accounts.
Change of auditor
Where there is a change of auditor, please ensure that the Change of Auditor Request Form is completed and signed by the agent, the new auditor and the outgoing auditor.
Please note that the Commissioner is unable to accept audit reports where the auditor has changed but no Change of Auditor Request Form has been received and approved.
When do i need to notify Consumer Protection of changes to a trust account?
Agents must notify the Commissioner in writing, within five working days, whenever a trust account is opened, closed or amended. The relevant forms for all these actions are available on the Department of Mining, Industry Regulation and Safety’s webpage.
The requirement to notify the Commissioner of opening or closing a trust account excludes interest bearing trust accounts as requested by a client. However these accounts are still required to be reconciled at the end of each month and audited as part of the annual audit.
If you have any questions, or require further information, please visit the website Auditors of settlement agents forms and publications or contact the audits team by email audits@demirs.wa.gov.au or by telephone on (08) 6251 2721.