How do I VOI council?

[JonTeh]

Hi, For those who act for local council as vendors/purchasers in a transfer. I received this great question last week from two practitioners, so I thought I'd share it with everyone here too:

How do you VOI council?

[Patrick · Accepted solution]

Hi there, 

I'm not 100% sure on this one, but I imagine you VOI the persons who are authorised to execute documents or transfers. Usually it is one of the following options:

1.General Manager and the Mayor or one Councillor,

2. The Mayor and at least two Councillors, or

3. At least two Councillors.

Here is a link for NSW, I imagine it is the same in most states:

Local Goverments

[AnnaHardie]

Thanks for sharing the question Jonathan and thanks Patrick for your guidance. 

To add to the answer, I had a quick look at the Model Participation Rues (MPR) and ARNECC Guidance Notes. They do not provide specific guidance regarding how to verify the identity of a council, however the following is instructive:

• MPR6.3(d) states that a Subscriber who is a Representative must “take reasonable steps to verify the authority of each Person entering into a Client Authorisation on behalf of a Client to bind both the Client to the Client Authorisation and to the Conveyancing Transaction(s) the subject of the Client Authorisation.”

• Guidance Note 2 – Verification of Identity, paragraph 4, states that where the client has appointed an individual as an attorney to sign for the client, the identity of the attorney must be verified.
  
  

Therefore, the council would sign the Client Authorisation in the same way that they would sign a Transfer (whether it be under power of attorney or pursuant to instrument of delegation etc).

The person(s) who sign the Client Authorisation would then need to have their identity verified.