What is the Client Authorisation form Victoria?
The Client Authoirsation form Victoria is a document that enables a party to the conveyancing transaction to authorise their lawyer or conveyancer to act on their behalf as their agent and sign paper instruments specific to that transaction. While the Client Authorisation form Victoria allows the lawyer or conveyancer to act for a client in a similar fashion to a power of attorney, legislation specifically states that the Client Authorisation form Victoria is not a power of attorney.
The specifics of of what the lawyer or conveyancer can do on behalf of their client with a Client Authorisation form Victoria are as follows: sign registry instruments or documents, present registry instruments or other documents for lodgement with the Land Victoria and authorise or complete any associated financial aspect of the transaction. The Client Authorisation form Victoria clearly sets out the details of extent of the authorisation and the completed form must be retained as supporting evidence of authority for the transaction.
When is the Client Authorisation form Victoria required?
The Client Authorisation form is mandatory for all paper and electronic conveyancing transactions from 1 January 2018 onwards. Prior to this date they were only mandatory for electronic transactions using PEXA. A transition period was allowed for all paper conveyancing transactions up until 31 December 2017.
All lawyers and conveyancers are encouraged to start using the Client Authorisation form Victoria as part of their processes before the expiry of the transition period.
How is the Client Authorisation form Victoria completed?
The Client Authorisation form Victoria is a one page documents that needs to be completed by the client and the representative. Once prepared, it signed by both the client and their legal of conveyancing representative. The representative signs the form in order to certify that reasonable steps were taken to ensure that the form was signed by the client.
The Client Authorisation form Victoria can be given for a specific standalone transaction, in which case the specific transaction should be listed in the form itself. It an be given as a standing authority, in which case the categories of transaction should be selected on the form, either until a specified date or until it is revoked. It can also be given for batch transactions, in which case details of the transactions the batch authority is intended to over should be included.
Click here to download a copy of the Client Authorisation Form or contact us for further information.
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