Property Services (Regulation) Act 2011

PART 5

Client Accounts and Related Matters

Keeping and preservation of client accounts and records.

46.— (1) Subject to subsection (2) and section 48 (4), the Authority shall make regulations providing for all or any of the following matters:

(a) the class or classes of licensee to whom the regulations apply;

(b) the kind or kinds of accounts at banks which may be opened and kept by a licensee for the keeping of client moneys in connection with the provision of property services;

(c) the opening and keeping of such accounts by a licensee;

(d) the rights, duties and responsibilities of a licensee in respect of moneys received, held, controlled or paid in connection with the provision of property services, including the lodgment to and withdrawal from a client account of client moneys;

(e) the acknowledgements or statements to be issued by a licensee in respect of client moneys received, held, controlled or paid by the licensee in connection with the provision of property services;

(f) the circumstances in which moneys other than client moneys may be paid into accounts containing client moneys and the circumstances in which, and the persons for whom, moneys held in such accounts may be paid out;

(g) the accounting records to be maintained by a licensee arising from the provision of property services by the licensee, including the minimum period or periods for which accounting records shall be retained by a licensee during the period of, and following the conclusion of, the provision of property services and the manner in which the lodgement into client accounts of any client moneys received by the licensee shall be recorded in the accounting records;

(h) the accounting records to be maintained by a licensee containing particulars of and information as to moneys received, held, controlled or paid by the licensee in connection with the provision of property services, for or on behalf of a client or any other person or himself or herself;

(i) client entitlements, including the treatment or retention of interest, income or profit arising from any client moneys in such cases as may be specified in the regulations;

(j) the circumstances in which a licensee may be required to make good moneys to a client account including the payment of interest or an equivalent sum;

(k) the circumstances and manner in which a licensee (or a duly qualified accountant on behalf of the licensee) verifies compliance with the regulations, including the frequency of doing so;

(l) the examination by an auditor or a duly qualified accountant, at intervals prescribed by the regulations, of accounting records maintained by a licensee under regulations made under paragraphs (g) and (h);

(m) the enforcement by the Authority of compliance with the regulations;

(n) the imposition of fees on a licensee in cases of non-compliance where the Authority has to conduct further enquiries (being fees not exceeding the cost of conducting such enquiries);

(o) the examination, by or on behalf of the Authority, of the financial circumstances of a licensee in so far as such circumstances could affect the licensee’s capacity to provide property services.

(2) The Authority shall, in making regulations under this section, have regard to the need to protect client moneys.