17 June 2022

Reminder: Audit period starts soon!

Agents who hold a triennial certificate and have held monies in trust during the 2021-22 financial year will need to provide a Statement of trust account money - Annexure A to their appointed auditor following the end of the financial year after 30 June 2022.

Agents who have not held or received any trust funds during the financial year must lodge a statutory declaration to this effect in lieu of an audit report.

In your statement to the auditor, you are required to provide full details of the trust accounts held, including:

• Details of the names, account numbers and financial institution name and branch name where the trust accounts are maintained (this reporting requirement also applies to clients’ separate interest bearing trust accounts).
• The reconciled balance held in each trust account as at the audit date (including those closed during the audit period).

The statement will be attached to the audit report and submitted to the Commissioner for Consumer Protection (the Commissioner) by your appointed auditor.

Make sure that you provide the statement and your accounts to your auditor to provide time for them to undertake the audit. The auditor must lodge audit reports with the Commissioner by 30 September 2022.

Breaches from the prior audit period that have not been rectified must be reported to the Commissioner in the report.

To help you understand your obligations regarding trust monies and trust accounts under the Settlement Agents Act 1981 (WA) (the Act) and the Settlement Agents Regulations 1982 (WA), Consumer Protection has recently updated the Settlement agents trust account handbook.

Agents are reminded that penalties apply for failing to comply with audit requirements as set out in the Act.

Change of auditor

If there has been a change of auditor, please note the Commissioner is unable to accept audit reports from auditors whose appointment has not been approved.

Agents seeking to change their auditor must lodge a change of auditor request with the Commissioner by 31 July 2022, or no more than one month after the end of the audit period.