Proactive compliance visits - Settlements agents

• Preparing yourself
• Proactive visit checklist

Objectives of the program

Consumer Protection has an initiative to “conduct and promote education and provide advisory services for persons who are licensed or registered” under the authority provided by the Settlement Agents Act 1981 “the Act”.

Consumer Protection’s proactive compliance programme aims to encourage high levels of compliance with the requirements of the Act, the regulations and Code of Conduct resulting in:

• greater understanding by agents of the laws which govern their activities;
• the achievement of consistently high ethical and professional standards in the industry;
• fair and open competition because all agents compete on the same “level playing field”;
• enhanced consumer protection because of high ethical and professional standards; and
• the delivery to agents of compliance tools including checklists, references, manuals and compliance systems.

How the visit is conducted

A proactive compliance visit includes:

• meeting with the person in bona fide control of the agency;
• review of notices and particulars on correspondence and documents;
• examination of the agency’s trust account and trust accounting procedures;
• a review of a sample of the agency’s completed settlement files;
• a discussion with you of the complaints (if any) lodged against your agency;
• a discussion with you of the training and professional development needs of your agency.

What you will need

To ensure the visit is conducted with the minimum of disruption to your business operations we would be pleased if you would have the following available at the appointed time of our visit:

• The Licence, Triennial Certificate and Business Name Registration Certificate displayed [Section 42(1)(a) & (b)]
• A copy of the agency’s letterhead [Section 42(2)(a) & (b)]
• A printed copy of the Form 1 appointment to act documents used in your agency
• Your trust account bank statements and reconciliations for the previous 3 months
• Your trust account cheque book and receipt book
• The Form 2 Disclosure Form (if applicable)
• Current copies of the Settlement Agents Act 1981, Regulations 1982 and Code of Conduct 1982 as amended
• A sample of identity checks recently conducted by your agency
• The last audit report from your agency’s auditor.

We will select a sample of your settled files for inspection during our visit.

As a minimum you should review the following prior to the visit:

• Settlement Agents Act 1981: Sections 26, 35, 36, 41, 42, 43, 44, 46, 49, 49A, 50, 51, 54, Schedule 2
• Settlement Agents Regulations 1982: Reg. 4B, 6B, 6D, 6E, 6F, 14, Schedule 3
• Settlement Agents' Code of Conduct 1982: In its entirety.

The following checklist will help you prepare for a proactive compliance visit: