If your conveyancing practice provides a designated service from 1 July 2026, you must screen every customer against the DFAT autonomous sanctions list and the UN Security Council consolidated list before you act, and keep screening during the matter. This matters in conveyancing because you may be helping a person buy, sell or transfer real property, handle trust money, or progress a transaction involving assets. If you provide a service to a sanctioned person or entity, that is a strict-liability criminal offence, and broader AML/CTF breaches can also expose your practice to civil penalties of up to $33.5 million per contravention.
Your AML/CTF obligations
For a conveyancer, sanctions screening is a separate step from identity checks. Verifying a client’s driver licence or passport does not tell you whether they are on a sanctions list. You need a process that checks the client’s full name and any other identifying details against both sanctions lists before you start the designated service. If the client is a company or trust, screen the customer and also consider the people who ultimately own or control it, because the real party behind the transaction may not be the person signing the engagement letter.
What a conveyancing practice should do on each file
Do not proceed on a possible match
If a name match appears, stop and escalate it inside your practice before doing more work on the property matter. Do not exchange, settle, transfer funds, lodge further documents, or tell the client you are considering an SMR. Tipping off is a separate criminal offence.
The most common mistake in conveyancing is screening only the individual who gives instructions and ignoring the entity behind the purchase or sale. Another is screening once at file opening and never again, even where settlement is delayed for months or the buyer is replaced by a nominee. Practices also confuse sanctions screening with politically exposed person checks. They are different checks. A client can be clear on one and still require action on the other. Screening is also not limited to overseas buyers. Australian residents, local companies and domestic trusts still need to be checked.
Build the check into your opening workflow so a matter cannot move to contract review, exchange or settlement booking until screening is recorded. For small conveyancing practices, the simplest approach is a standard file-opening checklist covering the client, any company or trust involved, and beneficial owners. Keep evidence of the search result on the electronic file and train staff to escalate close name matches, unusual ownership structures, late changes to parties, and instructions involving third-party payments. If your AML/CTF program changes, repeat training and document it.
A lightweight AML platform, built exclusively for Tranche 2
Get AUSTRAC's mandates done as fast and effortless as possible.