Checking a settlement agent’s licence

Searching the register

The WA Government’s settlement agent licensing page points to the WA Online Licence Search as the way to find a licensed settlement agent, and explains the two ways to use it.

1. Open the search. The licensing page lists the online licence search under the heading “Consumer Protection licence and registration search”.
2. If you have a licence number, type it into the field on the opening screen to see whether it is still valid.
3. If you have a name or a place, choose ‘Type’, start typing the licence type, then type a name or a location.
4. Read it against the paperwork. The agent gives you a Form 1 Appointment to act before you sign it, so the name on that form can be read against the name on the register.

A licence is not the only route into the work. A certified legal practitioner can also run settlements, a separate route from the Consumer Protection licence. For them the place to look is the Legal Practice Board’s Find a Lawyer search, which covers every person admitted as a lawyer in Western Australia. The same page links the Board’s Register of Disciplinary Action, which shows whether the State Administrative Tribunal or the Supreme Court has taken disciplinary action against a lawyer.

What a licence carries with it

A licence is more than a name on a list. The WA Government’s licensing page and Consumer Protection’s pages describe what comes with it.

• Conditions. The Commissioner for Consumer Protection can add conditions to, or lift them from, licences and triennial certificates at any time. Before imposing one, the Commissioner must tell the licence holder in writing and offer the chance to make submissions.
• Insurance. Under section 35 of the Act, each triennial certificate holder who trades in their own right, or who is in bona fide control of a licensed agency or manages a branch, must at all times be insured under the Commissioner’s Master Policy Agreement.
• Firms and companies. A licensed partnership or company must keep a minimum number of licence holders, supervise its staff and maintain sound financial practices.
• Trust accounts. An approved auditor must audit a settlement agent’s trust account, and the agent must lodge the auditor’s report with Consumer Protection.
• A code of conduct. Settlement agents must follow the Code of conduct for settlement agents.
• A fidelity account. Each application for a licence or renewal of a triennial certificate includes a contribution to the fidelity account, which exists to reimburse people who lose money or property through a licensee’s defalcation.

The name is protected, too. Section 26 of the Settlement Agents Act 1981 makes it an offence to carry on business as a settlement agent, or to hold yourself out as one by any means, without a licence and a current triennial certificate. The maximum fine is $100,000, and $500,000 for a body corporate, since section 40(5) of the Sentencing Act 1995 sets five times the individual maximum where an offence names no separate company fine.

Who is on the register, and who need not be

Consumer Protection notes that some roles in an agency may not need a licence at all, such as taking phone calls, handling simple customer questions and arranging appointments for agents. The person who runs your settlement is a different matter: Consumer Protection’s settlement page says settlement agents must be licensed to operate in Western Australia.

A settlement agent licensed elsewhere in Australia or in New Zealand may be able to work in WA through mutual recognition or automatic mutual recognition, which the licensing page links.

If something goes wrong

Consumer Protection’s complaint steps start with the trader: explain the problem, then put it in writing, and keep records of who you spoke to and when. If you and the trader cannot agree, Consumer Protection says it may be able to help. It takes complaints through a property related online complaint form, a printable form or in person, and its Contact Centre can help you submit one on 1300 30 40 54.

Where money held in trust has been lost through a licensed agent’s criminal or fraudulent conduct, the Fidelity Guarantee Account page sets out who can claim and how. Not every complaint can use the account; some are handled as a general consumer complaint instead.