South Australian Consolidated Acts

CONVEYANCERS ACT 1994 - SECT 7

7—Entitlement to be registered

        (1)         A natural person is entitled to be registered as a conveyancer if the person—

            (a)         has—

                  (i)         the qualifications required by regulation; or

                  (ii)         subject to the regulations, the qualifications that the Commissioner considers appropriate; and

            (b)         has not—

                  (i)         been convicted of an indictable offence of dishonesty; or

                  (ii)         during the period of 10 years preceding the application for registration, been convicted of a summary offence of dishonesty; and

            (c)         is not suspended or disqualified from practising or carrying on an occupation, trade or business under a law of this State, the Commonwealth, another State or a Territory of the Commonwealth; and

            (d)         is not an insolvent under administration within the meaning of the Corporations Act 2001 of the Commonwealth; and

            (e)         has not, during the period of five years preceding the application for registration, been a director of a body corporate wound up for the benefit of creditors—

                  (i)         when the body was being so wound up; or

                  (ii)         within the period of six months preceding the commencement of the winding up; and

            (f)         is a fit and proper person to be registered as a conveyancer.

        (2)         Subject to subsection (3), a company is entitled to be registered as a conveyancer if—

            (a)         the company—

                  (i)         is not suspended or disqualified from practising or carrying on an occupation, trade or business under a law of this State, the Commonwealth, another State or a Territory of the Commonwealth; and

                  (ii)         is not being wound up and is not under official management or in receivership; and

            (ab)         no director of the company is a prescribed person; and

            (b)         no director of the company—

                  (i)         has—

                        (A)         been convicted of an indictable offence of dishonesty; or

                        (B)         during the period of 10 years preceding the application for registration, been convicted of a summary offence of dishonesty; or

                  (ii)         is suspended or disqualified from practising or carrying on an occupation, trade or business under a law of this State, the Commonwealth, another State or a Territory of the Commonwealth; or

                  (iii)         has, during the period of five years preceding the application for registration, been a director of a body corporate wound up for the benefit of creditors—

                        (A)         when the body was being so wound up; or

                        (B)         within the period of six months preceding the commencement of the winding up; and

            (c)         each director of the company is a fit and proper person to be the director of a company that is registered as a conveyancer.

        (3)         A company is not entitled to be registered as a conveyancer unless the constitution of the company contains stipulations so that—

            (a)         the sole object of the company must be to carry on business as a conveyancer; and

            (b)         the majority of the directors of the company must be natural persons who are registered conveyancers (but where there are only 2 directors 1 may be a registered conveyancer and the other may be a person who is not a registered conveyancer and nothing in this paragraph prevents a constitution providing that all directors of a company must be registered conveyancers); and

            (c)         no director of the company may be a prescribed person; and

            (d)         the majority of voting rights exercisable at a meeting of the members of the company must be held by registered conveyancers who are directors or employees of the company (but nothing in this paragraph prevents a constitution providing that all such rights must be held by registered conveyancers); and

            (e)         no share in the capital of the company, and no rights to participate in distribution of profits of the company, may be owned beneficially by a prescribed person.

        (4)         For the purposes of this section, a person is a "prescribed person if the person is—

            (a)         a land agent; or

            (b)         a financier; or

            (c)         a close associate of a land agent or financier,

other than where the land agent, financier or close associate is also—

            (d)         a registered conveyancer; or

            (e)         a prescribed relative of a registered conveyancer who is a director of the particular company seeking registration under this section.

        (5)         In this section—

"financier" means a person who carries on a business that consists of or involves—

            (a)         mortgage financing; or

            (b)         lending money for the purchase of land;

"land agent" means an agent or a sales representative within the meaning of the Land Agents Act 1994 .