Guide

Counterparty CDD for real estate agents

When to check the party you don’t act for, how to rely on the conveyancer, and what to record when a buyer or seller won’t cooperate.

By Matt Collis·Updated 28 October 2026·Reviewed 28 October 2026·7 min read

Every sale you broker gives you two customers. Under the AML/CTF Act, a selling agent’s customers are the seller and the buyer, whichever side the agency acts for. Your own client is checked before you act. The other party, the counterparty, runs on a different clock with its own rules.

This page covers the counterparty only: who it is, when the check is due, when you can lean on the conveyancer, what to do when someone won’t cooperate, and how listings from before 1 July fit in. The full set of obligations is in our guide to AML/CTF obligations for real estate agents, and the year-one picture is in real estate agents and Tranche 2.

Who the counterparty is

If you act for the seller, the buyer is your counterparty. If you are a buyer’s agent, it is the seller. The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) says the service to the counterparty starts when it is reasonably expected that the transaction will proceed, typically when the offer is accepted and the contract is signed. Bidders and inspectors who never reach that point are not yet customers.

Check who is actually on the other side. In AUSTRAC’s starter kit auction example, the winning bidder is a representative buying for a married couple. The agent verifies the representative, the representative’s authority to act and both buyers. Where the buyer is a company or trust, you also establish its beneficial owners, as set out in collecting UBO information under Tranche 2.

When the check is due

You act forYour own clientThe counterparty
The sellerBefore the service starts, which is when the agency agreement is signedBy the earlier of 28 days after exchange or 3 days before the initially agreed settlement date
The buyer (buyer’s agent)Before the agreement to find or identify a property is signedBy the same deadline

Key point

For the party you don’t act for, the Rules set the deadline as the earlier of 28 days after the exchange of contracts and 3 days before the initially agreed day for settlement (AML/CTF Rules, section 6-32).

Two worked examples. Contracts exchange on 1 November with settlement agreed for 15 December: 28 days after exchange is 29 November, which comes first. Contracts exchange on 1 November with settlement agreed for 20 November: 3 days before settlement is 17 November, which comes first. Because the Rules use the initially agreed day, a later extension of settlement does not give you more time.

The delay is not automatic. Before you rely on it, AUSTRAC says you must determine on reasonable grounds that delaying is essential to avoid interrupting the ordinary course of business and that the extra money laundering and terrorism financing risk is low. Inconvenience is not enough. Your policies need to cover when you delay, and to complete the check as soon as reasonably practicable. The deadline is the outer limit, not the target.

At auction, the buyer may only be known at the fall of the hammer, and AUSTRAC says that will often justify a delay. In the same starter kit example, the agent still runs sanctions screening without delay and completes the rest of the check after exchange.

Relying on the buyer’s conveyancer

The Rules give agents a specific route for the counterparty. Under section 6-33(1), an agent is taken to have met parts of its initial CDD when all of these are true:

  • brokering the sale is the only designated service you are providing to that customer, through an Australian office
  • for an individual, you have taken reasonable steps to establish they are who they say they are
  • you have identified the customer’s risk from the information reasonably available before you start, and collected information appropriate to that risk
  • you are in an arrangement with another reporting entity in the same transaction, such as the conveyancer, which will collect and verify the customer’s information no later than 28 days after exchange
  • the arrangement lets you obtain that information, and copies of the data used to verify it, at least 3 days before the initially agreed settlement date
  • the arrangement documents each participant’s responsibilities, including record keeping.

Section 5-20 of the Rules adds that your policies must say how you will verify the customer yourself before settlement if the information doesn’t arrive. Reliance also differs from outsourcing: AUSTRAC says a KYC or outsourced service provider is not a reliance partner, and arrangements made before 1 July 2026 need reviewing against the Act and Rules. Conveyancers’ own obligations are in AML/CTF requirements for conveyancers.

When the counterparty won’t cooperate

The 10 June 2026 starter kit release added a step for this, based on sections 6-33(2) and (3) of the Rules. You are taken to have established the matters you could not confirm if you have taken all reasonable steps, the counterparty has not cooperated, and you have recorded:

  1. the steps you took and any difficulties you met
  2. your consideration of whether a suspicious matter reporting obligation arises.

Section 9-4A of the Rules makes the failure to cooperate a matter you must take into account in deciding whether you have grounds for suspicion. If you do form a suspicion, the suspicious matter report is due within 3 business days, or 24 hours for terrorism financing, and you must not tip the customer off. In practice, the file shows each request, its date, the response and who escalated it to the compliance officer.

Listings that started before 1 July 2026

A customer is a pre-commencement customer if you were providing them a designated service on 1 July 2026, or had a business relationship with them involving one before that date. A seller whose listing was on foot on 1 July is in that group. You don’t need initial CDD on them unless a suspicious matter reporting obligation arises or a significant change in the relationship takes their risk to medium or high. Ongoing CDD still applies: monitor for unusual behaviour and keep their information current.

The buyer on that listing is a different case. On AUSTRAC’s definitions, a buyer whose service starts after 1 July, at exchange, had no designated service from you before commencement, so the counterparty rules above apply in full.

For repeat vendors, AUSTRAC looks at how long and how recently you have provided designated services, and whether there is a pattern or an expectation of more. In its starter kit examples, the business relationship ends at settlement, and no further ongoing CDD is needed after that. More in ongoing customer due diligence.

What StackGo does, and where the rest happens

StackGo runs the counterparty check from one link. Send the buyer an Intake form at exchange, and they complete a biometric ID check on their phone (Verify). Their verified name is screened against politically exposed person (PEP), sanctions and adverse media lists (Screen), and your team records a High, Medium or Low rating with the decision, assessor and date (Assess). Reminder emails follow up a buyer who hasn’t finished. StackGo doesn’t read contract or settlement dates, so the deadline comes from your sales file.

Reliance arrangements with conveyancers sit in your anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) program, and suspicious matter reports are lodged by your agency in AUSTRAC Online.

To see a buyer check run end to end, book a demo.

Frequently asked questions

Is it 15 days or 28 days?

28 days after exchange, or 3 days before the initially agreed settlement date if that is earlier. The 15-day figure came from the first starter kit, changed in the 10 June 2026 release. AUSTRAC’s starter kit customer examples page, last updated 2 April 2026, still says 15 days. Follow the Rules.

Settlement has been extended. Do we get more time?

No. Section 6-32 of the Rules uses the initially agreed day for settlement, so the deadline stays where it was when contracts exchanged.

The contract fell over and the property sold again. Does the clock restart?

The new buyer is a new counterparty, and the deadline runs from the new contract’s exchange and initially agreed settlement dates.

AUSTRAC’s delayed CDD page says “buyer” when you act for the buyer. Which party is it?

The seller. When you act for the buyer, section 6-32(2) of the Rules lets you delay CDD on the seller or transferor. The guidance page repeats “buyer/transferee” in that scenario, which reads as a drafting slip.

Do we verify the representative or the buyer?

Both. In AUSTRAC’s auction example, the agent verifies the representative, the representative’s authority to act and each buyer.

Sources

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