Conveyancing Act 2004 (Tas)

Conveyancing Act 2004

An Act to regulate the business of conveyancing, to amend the Auctioneers and Real Estate Agents Act 1991 so as to provide for a guarantee fund for claims against conveyancers and also to amend the Legal Profession Act 1993 [Royal Assent 14 July 2004]

Be it enacted by His Excellency the Governor of Tasmania, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council and House of Assembly, in Parliament assembled, as follows:

PART 1 - Preliminary

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Conveyancing Act 2004 .

2. Commencement This Act commences on a day to be proclaimed.

3. Interpretation (1) In this Act – approved institution means an authorised deposit-taking institution with a branch or head office in the State with which a scheme of arrangement that – (a) relates in whole or in part to the keeping of trust accounts for the purposes of this Act; and (b) is in force – has been entered into under section 147 of the Property Agents and Land Transactions Act 2016 ; commission means any monetary consideration or any other form of consideration to which a monetary value may be assigned; conveyancer means a person who is not a legal practitioner and who carries on a business that involves the preparation for fee or reward of – (a) dealings within the meaning of the Land Titles Act 1980 ; or (b) instruments for the purposes of any other Act or law as provided by an order made under subsection (2) ; Court means the Magistrates Court (Administrative Appeals Division); deemed registration means an entitlement to automatic deemed registration, within the meaning of the Mutual Recognition Act 1992 of the Commonwealth; Director means the Director of Consumer Affairs and Fair Trading; document means any record of information, and includes – (a) anything on which there is writing; and (b) anything on which there are marks, figures, symbols or perforations having a meaning for persons qualified to interpret them; and (c) anything from which sounds, images or writings can be reproduced with or without the aid of anything else; and (d) a map, plan, drawing or photograph – and a reference in this Act to a document includes a reference to – (e) any part of the document; and (f) any copy, reproduction or duplicate of the document or of any part of the document; and (g) any part of such a copy, reproduction or duplicate; fiduciary default means – (a) a defalcation, misappropriation or misapplication of trust money held by a conveyancer; or (b) the failure of a conveyancer to account for trust money held by the conveyancer; or (c) a breach of any duty by a conveyancer as trustee in respect of trust money held by the conveyancer; legal practitioner means an Australian legal practitioner; licence, in relation to the carrying on of business as a conveyancer, means – (a) a licence that is issued and in force in accordance with Division 1 of Part 2 ; or (b) a licence held by a person by virtue of deemed registration; prescribed offence means – (a) an offence involving dishonesty, whether committed in Tasmania or elsewhere; or (b) an offence involving violence, whether committed in Tasmania or elsewhere; or (c) an offence under Part V of the Poisons Act 1971 or a similar offence under the law of another State; or (d) an offence relating to the possession and use of a firearm, or any other weapon, that would disqualify the applicant from holding a licence under the Firearms Act 1996 ; or (e) an offence against this Act; professional indemnity insurance means insurance against civil liability arising in connection with carrying on business as a conveyancer (whether the liability arises from an act or omission on the part of the insured conveyancer or on the part of another person); regulations means regulations made and in force under this Act; trust account means an account, maintained for the purposes of this Act in the State, in which trust money is required to be deposited by a conveyancer; trust money, in respect of a conveyancer, means money – (a) that is received by the conveyancer on behalf of another person when acting as a conveyancer; and (b) to which the conveyancer is not wholly entitled. (2) The Minister may, by order published in the Gazette, extend the application of this Act to instruments prepared for the purposes of any other Act or law.