Victorian Numbered Regulations

ESTATE AGENTS (GENERAL, ACCOUNTS AND AUDIT) REGULATIONS 2018 (SR NO 48 OF 2018) - REG 19

    (1)     If an estate agent makes a payment of trust money from a trust account by cheque, the cheque must—

        (a)     be machine numbered in sequence; and

        (b)     be marked "not negotiable"; and

        (c)     not be payable to cash; and

        (d)     contain the name under which the estate agent conducts business and the words "trust account".

Penalty:     5 penalty units.

    (2)     An estate agent must ensure that cheques are drawn in the numerical order of the series in which they belong and that for each cheque a cheque butt or other printed record is kept of the following particulars—

        (a)     the date of the cheque;

        (b)     the serial number of the cheque;

        (c)     the name of the person to whom the payment is to be made or, in the case of a cheque made payable to an AFI, the name or BSB number of the AFI and the name of the person receiving the benefit of the payment;

        (d)     the name and reference number or other identification of the person on whose behalf the cheque was drawn;

        (e)     details identifying the account in the trust ledger to which the cheque is to be debited;

        (f)     particulars sufficient to identify the purpose for which the cheque was drawn;

        (g)     the amount of the cheque.

Penalty:     10 penalty units.

    (3)     It is sufficient compliance with the record-keeping requirements of subregulation (2) if, at the time the cheque is issued, the particulars set
out in subregulation (2) are recorded by the computerised accounting system in the trust account cash payments journal.

    (4)     An estate agent who makes payment from a trust account must ensure that the cheque is signed by—

        (a)     the estate agent who carries on business as an estate agent, or if the estate agent is a corporation, the officer in effective control; or

        (b)     if the estate agent or officer in effective control referred to in paragraph (a) is not available, an employee who is a signatory to the trust account of the estate agency business kept at an AFI under section 59(3) of the Act.

Penalty:     10 penalty units.

    (5)     An estate agent must ensure that records relating to payments made by cheque are kept in the order in which the cheques were issued.

Penalty:     5 penalty units.