Making a Complaint About Your Conveyancer

Most conveyancing transactions run smoothly, but occasionally something goes wrong: a missed deadline, a poorly explained fee, a document that was never lodged, or a communication breakdown at a critical point in your settlement. If that happens, it helps to know the proper sequence for raising a complaint, because conveyancers and the solicitors who carry out conveyancing work are regulated professionals, and every state and territory has a formal complaints pathway sitting behind the relationship you have with your own conveyancer.

Start With a Direct Conversation

Before lodging a formal complaint anywhere, raise the issue directly with your conveyancer or the practice principal, ideally in writing so there is a record of what was said and when. Many problems, particularly around communication, fee disputes or delays, are resolved quickly once they are put clearly on paper and escalated within the firm. Refer back to your original engagement letter or costs agreement, since it usually sets out what was promised, what the fee covers, and how complaints within the practice itself are meant to be handled. Larger practices, and law firms carrying out conveyancing work, often have a formal internal complaints procedure and a nominated person responsible for handling client concerns separately from the staff member who worked on your file, so ask whether that pathway exists before assuming your only option is a regulator.

Put Your Concerns in Writing

A written complaint should set out what happened, when it happened, what outcome you are seeking, and any relevant documents such as emails, invoices or settlement statements. Keep a copy of everything you send and receive. This record becomes important if the matter is not resolved internally and needs to be escalated to a regulator, since most regulators will ask what steps you already took to resolve the issue directly with the practice before you contacted them.

Know Which Regulator Applies in Your State

Where you take an unresolved complaint depends on where your conveyancer is licensed and, in some states, on whether the person doing your work is a licensed conveyancer or a solicitor. In New South Wales, licensed conveyancers fall under NSW Fair Trading's complaints process, while solicitors are handled separately by the Office of the Legal Services Commissioner. Victoria's licensed conveyancers are regulated through Consumer Affairs Victoria. In Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory, where conveyancing is carried out exclusively by solicitors, complaints about conduct or service generally go to the state's legal services complaints body rather than a consumer affairs department, since there is no separate licensed conveyancer category in either jurisdiction. Western Australia's settlement agents sit under Consumer Protection WA, South Australia's registered conveyancers under Consumer and Business Services, Tasmania's licensed conveyancers under Consumer, Building and Occupational Services, and the Northern Territory's conveyancing agents under its Agents Licensing Board.

What a Regulator Can and Cannot Do

Regulators can investigate misconduct, take disciplinary action against a licence, and in serious cases involving misappropriated trust money, connect you with a compensation or fidelity fund claim process. What they generally will not do is act as your personal advocate to recover a specific dollar amount you believe you are owed for ordinary service failures, that kind of dispute is more often resolved through the practice's internal complaints process, a state civil dispute tribunal, or, for a serious loss, your own legal advice. Understanding this distinction early saves time, since lodging a regulatory complaint about a fee disagreement will likely be redirected back toward a civil remedy rather than resolved by the regulator directly.

What Information to Have Ready

Whether you are escalating internally or lodging a complaint with a state regulator, having your paperwork organised makes the process faster and your position clearer. Useful documents include your original engagement letter or costs agreement, invoices and receipts, copies of relevant emails or letters, your conveyancer's licence number if you have already checked it, and a simple written timeline of what happened and when. Regulators generally ask for this kind of detail as a matter of course, so preparing it in advance, rather than reconstructing it after the fact, tends to shorten how long the initial assessment of your complaint takes.

Complaints Involving Trust Money

If your complaint relates specifically to trust money, such as a deposit or settlement funds that were not accounted for correctly, this is treated far more seriously by every regulator, because trust account handling sits at the core of what a conveyancer's licence permits them to do. These complaints are usually escalated quickly and can trigger an audit of the practice's trust account records, independent of whatever resolution you are personally seeking.

Complaints Involving Electronic Settlement

Occasionally a complaint relates to something that happened during an electronic settlement through the PEXA platform rather than to the conveyancer's own conduct. Electronic conveyancing in Australia operates under a national framework overseen by ARNECC's Model Participation Rules, and issues specific to the settlement platform itself are generally directed to the relevant land titles registrar or the electronic lodgment network operator, rather than handled purely as a complaint against your conveyancer.

Getting the Right Conveyancer From the Start

The best complaint is the one you never need to make. Choosing a properly licensed conveyancer, agreeing on fees and communication expectations in writing before your purchase or sale begins, and asking questions early rather than after a deadline has passed, all reduce the chance of a dispute arising in the first place. If a problem does emerge, addressing it promptly and in writing gives you the best chance of a quick resolution, whether that happens within the practice or through your state's regulator.