Real Estate Trust Accounts Audit in Melbourne
As a real estate agent, you must audit your trust accounts once a year. Otherwise, you can't renew your license from Consumers Affairs Victoria.
Real Estate trust accounts are state governed, and in Melbourne they are regulated by Consumer Affairs Victoria. A Real Estate trust account must be set up and maintained in accordance with the Estate Agents Act 1980 (the Act) and the Estate Agents (General, Accounts and Audit) Regulations 2018 (the Regulations). By law, Real Estate trust accounts must be audited annually, the audit period typically ending 30 June.
As per Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV), all the real estate agencies must audit their trust accounts once a year. The regulations requires that you must have your trust accounts audited each year:
- For the period 1 July to 30 June
- Within three months after 30 June
- By an approved auditor
- Using the audit report form approved by the Director, Consumer Affairs Victoria.
Provide the auditor with all books, papers, accounts, documents, securities, statements and reports reasonably necessary for the audit, and any information they reasonably require prepare, certify and produce for the auditor a statement detailing:
- Trust money held on the last day of the audit period
- Negotiable or bearer securities or deposit receipts you held that day, which represent money drawn from your trust account retain a copy of the signed audit report for seven years after it is delivered to you and be able to produce the report on demand.
You must lodge a copy of the audit report with us via myCAV within 10 business days of receiving it from the auditor. If you don't, you are committing an offence, which may result in a penalty of up to 120 penalty units. For more information, view Penalties - estate agents.
If the trust account held or managed trust funds at any time during the audit period, you must have this trust account audited. If this trust account did not hold or manage trust funds at all during the audit period, you are not required to have this trust account audited. However, you must still confirm this via your myCAV account.
An approved auditor is a practising public accountant who is a member of at least one of these professional bodies:
- CPA Australia
- The Institute of Public Accountants
- The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia.
- Real-estate Audit Melton
- Real-estate Audit Aintree
- Real-estate Audit Williams Landing
- Real-estate Audit Bacchus Marsh
- Real-estate Audit Wyndham
- Real-estate Audit Point Cook
- Real-estate Audit Plumpton
- Real-estate Audit Tarneit
- Real-estate Audit Truganina
- Real-estate Audit Hoppers Crossing
- Real-estate Audit Werribee
