Buying or selling in NSW right now? You will be asked for identification, and possibly for an explanation of where your money came from. It is not red tape invented by your solicitor — it is a new legal obligation that started on 1 July 2026. Here is what changed, and how to keep it from delaying your settlement.
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If you have bought or sold a property in the last fortnight, something will have felt different. Before your solicitor or conveyancer could do much of anything, they asked to see your passport or driver licence. They may have asked what your company or family trust actually does, or who really controls it. Some clients have been asked, politely but directly, where their deposit came from.
A lot of people have understandably read this as suspicion, or as a firm being difficult. It is neither. On 1 July 2026, Australia's anti-money laundering laws were extended to cover lawyers, conveyancers, accountants and real estate agents for the first time. Verifying who you are is now something your solicitor is required by law to do before acting on your matter.
This article explains, in plain English, what changed, what you will be asked for, why the questions about money are not what you think, and — most importantly — how to stop the new checks from putting your settlement date at risk.
Australia has had an anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regime for years, but it only applied to a limited group: banks, casinos, currency exchanges and similar businesses. Everyone else — including the professions that actually move property and money around — sat outside it.
The Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Amendment Act 2024 (Cth), which passed Parliament on 29 November 2024, closed that gap. It brought in what the industry calls the "tranche 2" entities: lawyers, conveyancers, accountants, real estate professionals, and dealers in precious metals and stones. Those new obligations commenced on 1 July 2026, and they are regulated by AUSTRAC, the federal financial-crime agency.
The logic behind it is not complicated. Property is one of the easiest and most attractive ways to wash large amounts of illicit money, because a house is a big-ticket, legitimate-looking asset. International bodies have criticised Australia for years for leaving the property professions outside the net. That gap is now closed.
This is the simple case, and it is most people. You will be asked to provide current photo identification — typically a passport or an Australian driver licence — and something that confirms your residential address. Many firms now do this through a secure electronic verification service, so it can often be done from your phone in a few minutes.
If you have changed your name (through marriage, for instance) and your documents do not match, have your marriage certificate or change-of-name certificate handy. That single mismatch is one of the most common reasons a verification stalls.
This is where it gets more involved, and where a surprising number of Hills District buyers find themselves — family trusts and self-managed super funds are very common vehicles for investment property around Norwest and Castle Hill.
Your solicitor will need the structure's documents (the trust deed, the company's details) and, critically, information about the people who ultimately own or control it. The law is interested in the human beings behind the entity, not just the name on the title. If you are buying through a discretionary trust with a corporate trustee, expect to identify the directors and the individuals who control the trust.
Practical tip: find your trust deed now, not the week before settlement. A surprising number of people cannot lay hands on it, and reconstructing a lost deed is neither quick nor cheap.
Some transactions attract additional checks, including questions about the source of your funds. This is the part that makes people uncomfortable, so it is worth being clear about what it is and is not.
Being asked where your money came from is not an accusation. It is not a tax audit, and your solicitor is not reporting your savings to the ATO. It is a risk-based step the legislation requires in certain circumstances, and the honest answer is that in the overwhelming majority of matters it is answered in two sentences and a bank statement.
You are more likely to be asked if your matter involves:
If the money is a gift from your parents to help you into the market, say so. A short letter from them confirming it is a gift, plus a bank statement, is usually the whole of it. The thing that causes problems is not having an unusual source of funds — it is being evasive about an ordinary one.
Your solicitor is not investigating you, is not sharing your financial position with the real estate agent or the other side, and is not interested in your tax return. The information collected for verification stays subject to your solicitor's duty of confidentiality and to privacy law, and it should be stored securely and used only for the purpose it was collected.
Here is the part that costs people actual money.
Your lawyer or conveyancer cannot proceed with the work until the verification is complete. If you engage a solicitor three days before settlement and then take a week to send through your identification, the checks do not politely step aside — your settlement date does.
In NSW, a late settlement is not a free pass. Depending on your contract, the other party may be entitled to charge interest for every day of delay, and in a hot market a purchaser who cannot settle on time is in a genuinely uncomfortable position. Meanwhile, the same 1 July change has landed on the other side of the transaction too — the agent and the other party's conveyancer are working through their own new obligations for the first time. There is less slack in the system than there was a month ago.
The fix is unglamorous and completely effective: deal with the identification the day you engage your solicitor, and flag anything unusual about your funding at the same time. Front-loaded, it is a ten-minute task. Left to the end, it is the thing standing between you and the keys.
Executors selling a property from an estate are not exempt. If you are administering an estate, expect to verify your own identity as executor as well as provide the grant of probate. It is one more reason to get the legal side of an estate moving early rather than late. Our guide on superannuation and your will covers some of the other traps in estate administration.
Transferring a share of a property to a spouse, a child or a parent still involves a transfer of real estate, and the checks still apply. This catches people out, because it feels like a private family arrangement rather than a transaction.
If a property is being transferred as part of a family law property settlement, the conveyancing side of that transfer sits within the same regime. If you are working through a separation, it is worth having the property and family law aspects handled together — see our family law page for how those pieces fit.
Michael handles every conveyancing matter personally. He is an engineer turned solicitor who worked on NSW infrastructure projects before practising law, which means property, contracts and buildings are the areas he knows best.
Practically, what that means for the new rules is this: the verification is handled early and efficiently, so it never becomes the reason your settlement slips. If your matter involves a trust, an SMSF, an overseas transfer or a family gift, you get a straight answer about what will be needed rather than a document request with no explanation attached.
If you are buying or selling in Baulkham Hills, Norwest, Castle Hill or anywhere across the Hills District and Western Sydney, we can look at your conveyancing matter from the contract stage — which, given the 2026 edition of the Contract for Sale is now compulsory, is a good time to have a second set of eyes on it anyway. Fixed fees are available where applicable, and you will always have a written costs agreement before any work begins.
Related reading: The 2026 Contract for Sale: what NSW buyers and sellers need to know · Building defects in NSW: your rights and the new 10-year cover · What happens if your builder goes broke?
This article is general information only and not legal advice. It describes the position as at July 2026. The AML/CTF regime is new for the legal and conveyancing professions and AUSTRAC guidance continues to develop, so the way individual firms apply the requirements may vary and the detail may change. For advice about your situation, contact Michael Campbell Law or another qualified solicitor.
From 1 July 2026, lawyers, conveyancers, real estate agents and accountants became subject to Australia's anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws. Verifying who a client is before acting on a property transaction is now a legal obligation, not a matter of office policy. Your conveyancer is not singling you out and cannot simply waive the requirement.
Usually a current passport or driver licence, and something confirming your residential address. If you are buying or selling through a company, trust or self-managed super fund, you will also be asked for the structure's documents and details of the people who ultimately own or control it. In higher-risk matters you may be asked about where your funds have come from.
Some matters require a check on the source of funds. This is not an accusation and it is not about your tax affairs. It is a risk-based step required by the legislation, and it is most likely to come up with large cash deposits, funds transferred from overseas, gifts from family members, or complex ownership structures. A short explanation with a bank statement or a gift letter is usually enough.
They can, if they are left to the last minute. The checks are usually straightforward, but they must be completed before your lawyer or conveyancer can act. The simplest way to protect your settlement date is to get your identification to your solicitor as soon as you engage them, rather than in the week before settlement.
Customer identification applies broadly to property purchases, sales and transfers, including transfers between family members and dealings by executors of a deceased estate. The depth of the checks varies with the risk of the particular matter, so a straightforward purchase by a local couple will involve less than a purchase through an offshore corporate structure.
Your lawyer or conveyancer must keep records of the verification for at least seven years. That information remains subject to privacy obligations and the solicitor's duty of confidentiality, and it should be stored securely and not used for unrelated purposes.
Michael handles every conveyancing matter personally, and gets the new identity checks out of the way early so they never threaten your settlement date. If you would like to talk it through, book a free 15-minute phone call.