Registration of Interest - Provision of Trust Account Services to Victorian estate agents and conveyancers via Deeds of Arrangement

The Department of Government Services (the Department) is seeking interested Authorised Deposit-taking Institution (ADIs) to register for the Provision of Trust Account Services to Victorian estate agents and conveyancers for the 5 years starting 1 November 2024.

The Department is the coordinating Agency for the Trust Accounts of estate agents and conveyancers in the State of Victoria under the authority of the Estate Agents Act 1980 and the Conveyancers Act 2006 (the Acts) which require that estate agents and conveyancers must have a trust account for holding money received from clients, such as sales deposits, rent or advertising or maintenance fees paid in advance.

The Department has Deeds of Arrangement (the Deeds) in place with eight ADIs which set out the authorities and arrangements for the trust accounts. The aggregate trust account balance is circa $3.2bn as of April 2024 covering approximately 6,500 accounts. The Department are undertaking a review of their banking arrangements in advance of the expiry of the Deeds in October 2024. New Deeds are required to be in place by 1 November 2024 to ensure statutory trust accounts are maintained in accordance with the Acts.