For conveyancers
When does a conveyancing AML/CTF designated service start?
For a conveyancer, timing is a compliance control. Initial CDD is generally required before a designated service is provided, so a file cannot wait until contract exchange or settlement to ask when the service began. AUSTRAC's professional-services guidance focuses on two linked facts: the provider acts on instructions, and the activity directly advances a relevant existing or prospective real-estate transaction. The answer differs across private treaty negotiations, auctions, family transfers and early advisory work. A signed engagement letter is important evidence but is not always the transaction milestone. This guide explains how to record a defensible start point without treating every preliminary conversation as regulated or allowing substantive transaction work to begin before controls are ready.
See the conveyancers AML/CTF workspaceUse the direct-advancement test
Table 6 item 1 covers assisting a person to plan or execute, or otherwise acting for a person in, a transaction to sell, buy or transfer real estate. AUSTRAC says a professional service generally begins when the provider acts on instructions and directly advances the relevant transaction. The transaction can be prospective; it need not already be completed or legally unconditional. What matters is whether there is a sufficiently identifiable transaction and the work is moving it forward.
An introductory explanation of standard conveyancing steps, a fee estimate or generic information may not directly advance a transaction. Once the practice reviews a contract for an identified sale, orders transaction-specific title searches, prepares transfer documents, coordinates discharge or payment, or takes another substantive step, it is much harder to describe the work as general information. Record the first such act and its instruction.
Private treaty and failed-reserve auction milestones
For a private treaty sale, AUSTRAC indicates that the relevant transaction can exist when buyer and seller agree the price, verbally or in writing, even before a deposit is paid or contracts are exchanged. A failed-reserve auction can move into the same position when post-auction negotiations produce an agreed price. Waiting for exchange as the universal start trigger can therefore be too late.
Matter intake should ask what has already been agreed, not only whether a contract is signed. Capture the property, parties, price status, instructions and work already performed. If the conveyancer was engaged earlier to provide general pre-purchase advice, update the classification when an identifiable property and agreed transaction emerge and the practice begins acting to advance it.
Auction transactions can start at the fall of the hammer
Where an auction meets reserve, AUSTRAC identifies the successful bid or fall of the hammer as the point at which the transaction is established for this analysis. A conveyancer already instructed by the bidder may need an intake design that collects and verifies the customer's information before bidding or has a lawful, documented response for the defined circumstances in which delayed CDD is available.
Do not treat auction speed as a general exemption. The delayed route has statutory conditions and applies to specified customers and periods. Pre-auction contract review may itself directly advance the prospective purchase depending on the instructions and facts, so the start assessment may arise before auction day even though the buyer is not yet successful.
Distinguish influence, withdrawal advice and execution
Advice about whether a person should buy, sell or withdraw can merely influence a decision and may not directly advance the transaction. That does not mean every document labelled advice is outside scope. Reviewing special conditions to enable signing, negotiating transaction terms, preparing the transfer or coordinating settlement can directly advance the deal even though legal advice is embedded in the activity.
If a matter changes direction, reassess. Advice on ending a proposed purchase may be outside item 1 on its facts, while implementing a rescission, handling controlled funds or arranging another property transaction can raise separate issues. Describe what the practice actually does rather than relying on the invoice narrative or file type.
Manage agents, town agents and hand-offs
Using a town agent or another person to perform a step does not automatically move the principal conveyancer's responsibility. AUSTRAC's guidance treats a town agent acting as the reporting entity's agent differently from an independent reporting entity providing its own service. Document the legal relationship, who provides the designated service, who performs CDD and how evidence is transferred and reviewed.
Build a start-trigger field into the matter system and prevent regulated tasks from progressing until the file has the required status. The record should state the instruction date, transaction milestone, first direct-advancement activity, customer, CDD status, delayed-CDD basis if any and reviewer. Revisit the field whenever the property, parties or service scope changes.
Official sources
Use these primary AUSTRAC pages to confirm the current rules and apply them to your circumstances.
Frequently asked questions
Does the service always start when the engagement letter is signed?
Not necessarily. The letter shows instructions and relationship, but the table 6 test also asks whether the activity directly advances a relevant transaction. In some files the start is later; in others transaction-specific work begins immediately. Record both the instruction and substantive milestone.
Can a designated transaction exist before contracts are exchanged?
Yes. AUSTRAC indicates that in a private treaty or post-auction negotiation, buyer and seller agreeing the price can be enough even before exchange or deposit. The conveyancer should ask about verbal as well as written agreement and classify the actual work being done.
Is pre-auction contract review outside AML/CTF because there is no successful bidder yet?
Not automatically. The transaction may be prospective, and a transaction-specific review intended to enable the client's purchase can directly advance it. Apply the facts, current guidance and the practice's scope procedure rather than using auction success as the only possible trigger.
Put it into practice
Cassandra AML turns these obligations into a working system: designated-service decisions, customer due diligence, screening, monitoring and reporting records — hosted in Sydney, free to start.
This guide is general information for Australian professionals. It is not legal advice and does not replace the AML/CTF Act, the AML/CTF Rules or AUSTRAC guidance. Confirm your specific obligations with AUSTRAC or a qualified legal adviser. See our editorial and correction standards.