Selling in 2026? Expect to prove who you are. Possibly three times.

Most people still call it verifying your identity

The first thing worth knowing is that most of the industry is not using the language of the legislation when it talks to clients. Some practitioners have adopted the newer terminology, so you may hear it either way.

I am still not really calling them AML checks. I am still referring to it more as verifying your identity, because that is what people are familiar with, and at the end of the day that is what we are doing. We are verifying who somebody is.

Melissa Hayward, Licensed Conveyancer, Your Choice Conveyancing

That is not spin. It is a reasonable read of how the rules land on an ordinary seller. For the overwhelming majority of people selling a house, the process is: show your ID, get on with it.

We send out the quote, then an ID verification checklist, and that talks about anti-money-laundering. Then when we send the onboarding form we explain that due to the new rules and regulations, this is what we are doing and why. But we try not to use too much of that language, because a lot of people are not familiar with it yet and we do not want to scare them.

Melissa Hayward, Licensed Conveyancer, Your Choice Conveyancing

What you will actually be asked for

The baseline is identity. Photo ID, matched against the name on the title, run through a verification platform.

If something in the transaction does not add up, the obligation escalates and a conveyancer can be required to ask about the source of funds. In everyday residential practice, that escalation is rare.

At this stage it has not been anything that we have had to take to those next steps.

Melissa Hayward, Licensed Conveyancer, Your Choice Conveyancing

One of these catches people out more than the rest. Where a trust is involved it is not only the trustee who gets verified. The beneficiaries of the trust are checked too, and Melissa flags that as the surprise that catches the most people off guard. If a family trust holds the property, work out who that captures before you are asked.

The four things that catch people out

• The name on your ID has to match the name on the title. Marriages, divorces and middle names abbreviated by a licensing authority all cause friction.
• Every seller on the title gets checked, not just the one who made the phone call.
• Executors, trustees, company directors and the beneficiaries of a trust get checked in that capacity too, which is a second layer on top of personal ID.
• There is a fee. It is small per check. It is less small when you pay it three times.

When in the sale it happens

This is where practice is still settling. There is a genuine grey area about what triggers the obligation, and therefore when the check has to be done.

A Form 1 document is not actually regarded as a designated service for our industry. A signed contract is generally when our services start. So we have got the signed contract, but at the same time we do not want to be going through the AML side of things if somebody calls it off during the cooling-off period. We do not do anything more until that cooling-off period has finished.

Melissa Hayward, Licensed Conveyancer, Your Choice Conveyancing

For a seller, the practical translation is simple. Expect the ID request early in your relationship with a conveyancer, and expect the substantive work to begin once the contract is real.

Why you might do it three times

Here is the part that irritates everyone who touches a transaction.

At Unreserved we run a full-service option where a licensed agent manages the whole campaign, so we sit inside that stack and see the duplication first hand. It is hard to look at three checks on the same customer and call it proportionate.

Melissa’s read on why the burden has landed where it has was blunter than ours.

Because government likes to pass on any job it cannot really be bothered doing itself.

Melissa Hayward, Licensed Conveyancer, Your Choice Conveyancing

The fix the industry actually wants

There is a better design sitting in plain sight, and it came up in a conversation Melissa saw among conveyancers online.

A conveyancer in New South Wales suggested that it should be done when you renew your licence. You do your ID check then, you get issued with a code that is valid for 12 months, and you use that code with whoever needs to verify you. I thought that was a really good idea, because you are going to the government anyway.

Melissa Hayward, Licensed Conveyancer, Your Choice Conveyancing

Under that model, the conveyancer enters the code, the platform returns the verified identity documents and runs the sanctions and politically exposed person screening on top. One check, one fee, one source of truth, and possibly some pressure on licensing authorities to stop abbreviating middle names.

It is not policy. It is what the people doing the work every day would build if anyone asked them.

If you are selling privately

Selling without an agent does not exempt you. It changes who does the checking.

In a private sale there is no agent in the chain, so the identity work sits with the conveyancer or solicitor acting on the transaction, and with the lender if finance is involved. Practically, that means one fewer check for you. It also means the conveyancer you pick matters more, because they are the only professional in the transaction carrying that obligation.

We do all of our own checks.

Melissa Hayward, Licensed Conveyancer, Your Choice Conveyancing

What to do about it

• Have current photo ID ready before you list, for every person named on the title.
• Check that the name on your ID matches the name on the title, and tell your conveyancer early if it does not.
• If you are an executor, trustee or director, flag it at the first conversation. If a trust is involved, name its beneficiaries too, because they get checked as well.
• Ask what the verification fee is when you get your quote, so it is not a surprise on the invoice.
• Do not panic. For an ordinary residential sale this is an ID upload, not an investigation.