Sale Proceeds in $100k Daily Increments? That's a Conveyancer Red Flag

I got a message from a landlord who had just sold a rental property. Their conveyancer — the licensed professional who handles the legal transfer of property — told them the sale proceeds would be paid out in $100,000 chunks, one per day, with no interest. The landlord asked if that was normal. It isn't.

What a normal settlement looks like

In Australia, a property settlement is a single event. The buyer's funds and the seller's title exchange hands at the same moment, usually through the national electronic settlement platform. On settlement day, the buyer's bank sends the full purchase price to the seller's side. The seller's conveyancer receives those funds into their trust account and must pay them out to the seller immediately — same day, in full.

I've sat through dozens of settlements as a property manager and later as a seller. The money never arrived in installments. It was always one transfer, final and complete. A few years ago I sold a unit in Brisbane and the proceeds hit my account before I'd even left the settlement agent's office. That's how it's supposed to work.

There's no legitimate reason for a conveyancer to hold back $100,000 a day over several days.

Why daily dribbles are a serious red flag

Conveyancers hold client money in a trust account. Those accounts have strict rules about when money can be withdrawn and for what purpose. The conveyancer is a custodian of your funds, not a lender or a savings bank. They can't invest your money, they can't use it to cover their own expenses, and they can't delay paying you without a written instruction from you or a court order.

Holding your sale proceeds without your consent suggests one of two things. Either the firm has a cash-flow problem and is using your settlement to cover other obligations, or someone is actively misusing the funds. Both are breaches of trust account rules. The first is incompetence. The second is fraud. Neither is acceptable.

The fact they're offering no interest makes it worse. If they were holding the money for a legitimate reason — which I've never seen — you'd expect interest. Daily increments with no interest looks like they need time to find the money.

What I'd do first

If this is happening to you, don't wait. Call the conveyancer and ask for a written explanation of why the funds aren't being paid in full today. Request that they release the entire balance immediately. If they refuse or give you a vague answer, contact your bank right away. Your bank can sometimes flag the receiving account or help trace where the money went, especially if you act within the first day or two.

I'm not a lawyer, and trust account rules vary by state, so the exact complaint process depends on where your property settled. But the steps are the same everywhere: document every communication, and escalate to the regulator fast.

Check your sale contract too. If you signed something agreeing to installment payments — which would be highly unusual for a standard residential sale — that changes the picture. But if you didn't agree to it, the conveyancer has no authority to invent a payment schedule.

While you're sorting out the complaint, loop in your real estate agent. They often have a direct line to the conveyancer and can apply pressure from the other side. I've seen a few trust account breaches over the years, and the ones that got resolved fastest were the ones where the seller made noise immediately.

Where to lodge a complaint in Australia

If the conveyancer is a solicitor, your first complaint goes to the Law Society in your state or territory. If they're a licensed conveyancer who isn't a solicitor, each state has a dedicated conveyancers licensing authority — often within the fair trading or consumer affairs department. You can search your state's regulator online and lodge a formal complaint about trust account misconduct.

If you suspect the money has been stolen or misappropriated, report it to the police. Misuse of trust funds is a criminal offence in most Australian jurisdictions. You can also contact the financial services ombudsman scheme if a bank or payment provider was involved and failed to protect your funds.

A settlement is supposed to be the finish line, not the start of a collections process. If your conveyancer turns a one-day event into a ten-day payment plan, treat it as the alarm bell it is.