The client authorisation: the form that lets a lawyer sign for you

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Kooky

Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.

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No buyer or seller has a login to the network on which Queensland property settles. The transfer that moves a home from one name to another is signed with a digital certificate held by a law firm, a conveyancing practice or a lender. The owner's own signature appears nowhere on it.

What the owner signs instead is a short standard form called a client authorisation. Everything the representative later does on the network, from signing the transfer to completing the money side of settlement, rests on it.

This guide reads the form closely. It uses three sources: sections 10 and 11 of the Electronic Conveyancing National Law (Queensland), as published on the Queensland legislation website; Guidance Note 1 on client authorisations from the Australian Registrars' National Electronic Conveyancing Council (ARNECC), in the version updated in August 2024 for version 7 of the Model Participation Rules; and the worked examples of the completed form that the guidance note reproduces. It explains what the law says the document is, the three types of authority, what the person signing states and accepts, how the authority ends, how it fits with the identity and entitlement checks, and what the firm must keep. The guidance note states that it is not legal advice, and this guide describes the general position only.

What the national law says it is

Section 10 of the national law defines the document in two parts. A client authorisation is a document in the form required by the participation rules, by which a party to a conveyancing transaction authorises a subscriber to do one or more things on that party's behalf in connection with the transaction, so that the transaction, or part of it, can be completed electronically.

Each phrase does work. "In the form required" means the document is not something a firm drafts for itself. "A subscriber" is, in the law's definition, a person authorised under a participation agreement to use an electronic lodgment network. "One or more things" signals that the authority is limited to what the form lists.

The section then gives three examples of what may be authorised: to digitally sign registry instruments or other documents, to present them for lodgment electronically, and to authorise or complete any associated financial transaction.

Section 11 deals with effect. Beyond the statement that the document is not a power of attorney, it provides that if a client authorisation is properly completed, the requirements of any other Queensland law about the execution, signing, witnessing, attestation or sealing of documents must be regarded as fully satisfied. That is the provision which lets a registry instrument take effect without the owner's witnessed signature on it. The section adds that none of this disturbs the law of powers of attorney where an attorney signs a client authorisation for someone else.

Why the form exists and when it is needed

The guidance note gives the reason in practical terms. A client will not be able to access an electronic lodgment network to sign a registry instrument, so a client authorisation is required to give the client's conveyancer or lawyer authority to sign on the client's behalf.

The general rule in the note is that one is required whenever a conveyancer or lawyer represents a client in a transaction on a network. The note then sets out the cases that fall outside it.

The third row explains something borrowers notice. A person buying with a loan signs a client authorisation for their own lawyer, but not for their bank. The bank signs the mortgage on the network as a party in its own right. Where a lender uses a law firm to do that work, the lender is the firm's client and it is the lender that gives the authorisation.

The first row is due to change. Explanatory notes for version 8 of the Model Participation Rules, dated May 2026, describe removing the exception for caveats and priority notices, and anticipate that version 8 will start in October 2026.

One form, and its wording is fixed

The form is Schedule 4 of the Model Participation Rules. The guidance note says a client authorisation must be a standalone form and must substantially comply with that schedule, and it is strict about what "substantially" allows. Slight variations of format or style are permitted. The words may not change. A firm cannot vary the terms, and the terms cannot be varied by any other agreement between the firm and its client.

The note gives the reason twice: so that everyone taking part in a conveyancing transaction does so on the same terms.

Three practical rules follow from this in the note. The form does not replace the retainer agreement or authority to act that a firm ordinarily uses; it is required in addition, and the retainer cannot be inconsistent with it. It cannot be folded into the retainer, because it is a prescribed form that may be called for as evidence in a compliance examination. And the version to use is the one in effect on the day of signing: a form properly completed under an earlier version of the rules stays valid for its term.

The front page, part by part

The examples in the guidance note show a form that opens with identification. There is a space for the representative's reference, then the details of up to two clients: name, a company number where the client is a company, and address. The note says the company number field is left blank for a person who is not a company.

The representative's details come next. They are required on every client authorisation, the note says, even when someone else signs for the firm.

Then comes the choice of authority type, covered in the next section, and the transactions. The form lists the common kinds as tick boxes: transfer, mortgage, caveat, priority notice, discharge or release of mortgage, withdrawal of caveat, and "other". For each transaction there is a place for the property address and the land title reference or description. Where a dealing fits none of the listed kinds, the note says the "other" box is ticked and the transaction is specified in the space beneath it or in an attachment.

Getting the client's name right matters more than it seems. A company is the client in its own name; its directors sign as its agents and write their names and capacity beneath. A parent company and its subsidiaries each need a separate form, the note says, because each is a separate legal entity. Where an attorney acts, the form is completed in the name of the person who gave the power, and the attorney signs as agent.

Specific, standing or batch

The form offers three kinds of authority. The guidance note explains how each is completed and when each comes to an end.

A household buying or selling one home meets the specific authority. The first example in the note is a couple who authorise one firm for two linked transactions, the sale of one property and the purchase of another, on a single form.

The standing authority suits a client who returns often. The note's example is a lender authorising a firm for mortgages, caveats, priority notices, discharges and withdrawals of caveat until a stated date. A standing authority may be tied to a property or left open. If the client is giving authority for any property, including property acquired later, the note says the address and title reference parts are left blank; if the authority is for a specific property or development, they are filled in.

The batch authority is the developer's tool. In the note's example a development company authorises a firm for the transfers of ten lots in one plan, with the individual transactions listed in an attachment. How the batch is described is left to the client and the firm to agree, so long as there is no ambiguity about what is covered.

What the client states and accepts

The signing panel carries the client's side of the bargain. As the examples in the guidance note show it, the person signing certifies three things: that they are the client or the client's agent; that they have the legal authority to instruct the representative in the transactions described; and, where they sign as an agent, that they have no notice that their own authority has been revoked.

The same person then authorises the representative to act and acknowledges two consequences. The first is that the client is bound by any document the representative signs on the client's behalf under the authorisation. The second is that information about the client, including personal information, may be collected, stored, used and disclosed in the way the terms describe.

The representative signs too, for a narrower purpose. The lawyer or conveyancer certifies that reasonable steps were taken to ensure the form was signed by the client or the client's agent. A person the firm has appointed in writing for the purpose, called a representative agent, may sign that certification in place of the practitioner.

The panel also has a place for a witness who is an identity agent or an officer at an Australian consular office. It is not always used. Whether a witness is needed, the note says, depends on how the form is being completed and how identity is being verified.

The terms on the back

The note insists that the "Terms of this Client Authorisation" are part of a properly completed form. In the examples it reproduces there are six clauses.

1. What is authorised. The representative may sign the documents the transactions require, lodge them or arrange their lodgment with the land registry, authorise the financial side of settlement, and do what else is needed to complete the transactions. The client accepts being bound by what is signed within those limits.
2. Mortgagees. This clause matters only where the client is a lender. If the lender has told the firm that it took reasonable steps to verify its borrower's identity, it indemnifies the firm for loss resulting from a failure to do so.
3. Revocation. Either the client or the representative may revoke the authorisation by written notice.
4. Privacy and client information. Information obtained, including personal information, may be collected, stored, used and disclosed by those involved in completing or processing the transaction, and for purposes required by law. The note gives compliance examinations as an example of the latter.
5. Applicable law. The authorisation is governed by the law of the jurisdiction in which the property is situated.
6. Meaning of words. The definitions, including the three types of authority, the client agent and the representative agent.

Nothing in those terms sets a fee, describes the firm's services or limits its liability to the client. Those matters belong to the retainer, which is a different document.

Who may sign, and how

The form is signed by the client or by a client agent, meaning a person authorised to act as the client's agent, such as an attorney under a power of attorney or the officers who sign for a company. The note is careful to say that the firm acting as representative is not a client agent.

Whoever signs for a client must have the authority to do so, and the firm has to check it. The note says a subscriber must take reasonable steps to verify the authority of each person entering into a client authorisation on a client's behalf, both to bind the client to the form and to bind the client to the transactions it covers. Its guidance for particular signers is collected below.

• Companies. A company may execute under section 127 of the Corporations Act or in another way the law permits. The first route lets the firm rely on the statutory assumptions in section 129; any other route means further enquiry.
• Attorneys. Whether one attorney may sign alone depends on the terms of the power, which the firm is expected to read.
• Government bodies. The firm identifies the legal entity entitled to deal with the land, completes the form in that name, has it signed by a person holding a written delegation, and keeps a copy of the delegation.
• Minors. The firm has to determine whether the minor may sign or whether a guardian or trustee must.

Nothing in the national law or the model rules requires ink. The note says there is no requirement that the form be wet-signed, and that it is for the subscriber to determine whether an electronic signature complies with the electronic transactions legislation of the jurisdiction concerned. Co-owners may each sign a separate form. Where two clients named on one form have their identity verified at different times by different people, the note says two forms should be prepared.

A client abroad is treated the same as a client in Australia, and the form may be signed overseas. If the firm is relying on the Verification of Identity Standard, the note says the form must be signed at an Australian consular office, where the officer witnesses the signature. If the firm takes other reasonable steps instead, it may direct the client to sign before a different witness, or electronically.

How it lines up with the other checks

A client authorisation is rarely signed alone. Two other duties cluster around it.

On identity, the guidance note says the verification would ideally be completed at the time the form is signed. Where that is not possible, the practitioner must take reasonable steps to ensure the form is being signed by the client who was identified, for instance by referring back to the verification documents. The companion note on verification of identity, Guidance Note 2, adds a point in the client's favour: a client with a current client authorisation need not be re-verified while it runs, provided identity was properly verified before the first document was signed under it.

The right to deal is a different question. ARNECC's Guidance Note 4, also updated in August 2024, defines it as the entitlement of a person to be a particular party to a conveyancing transaction. Identity asks whether this is the named person; right to deal asks whether the named person is the owner, or the buyer under the contract. For an outgoing party the note lists evidence such as a local government rates notice, a utility bill, a land tax assessment, mortgage documents or a title search; for an incoming party, the contract of sale or loan documents. It describes the two checks as closely linked and says prudent practice is to conduct them together.

The anti-money laundering identity checks that began on 1 July 2026 belong to a separate regime with rules of its own, outside the three checks described here.

A special case arises when one practitioner instructs another to do the electronic work. The note says the subscriber that signs on the network must obtain the client authorisation directly from the client, not from the instructing practitioner, and must itself verify identity and right to deal.

How it ends, and what the firm keeps

The table above gives the ordinary end of each type: the conclusion of the transactions for a specific or batch authority, the expiry date for a standing authority. Three other events can end an authorisation earlier or make it unusable.

Revocation. Either side may revoke by written notice, under clause 3 of the terms.

Death of the client. The guidance note says a client authorisation ends upon the death of the client, with South Australia as the one exception because of a provision in that state's own legislation. Everywhere else, it says, death effectively renders the authorisation invalid, so that instruments or documents cannot be used or lodged for registration, whether they were signed before the death or not.

A change in the firm. Where practices merge into a new entity, the note says the client authorisations given to the previous practices cannot be relied on by the new one. New forms are needed to give the new entity authority.

The form gives a firm the power to sign in a client's name. It lasts only as long as the transaction, the date written on it, or the client's wish.

The guidance note describes the completed form as supporting evidence of authority for the transaction, and says it must be retained. The period is seven years from lodgment, and it applies both to the client authorisation and to any evidence supporting it.

Paper is not required. The form and its supporting evidence may be stored electronically. The note leaves the choice of medium to the subscriber, to be made in light of the possible need to produce the documents as evidence to a court, and says that whatever medium is used, they should be safely and securely stored.

The note on the right to deal adds that the supporting material for that check is kept as well, including dated copies of the documents seen and notes of the process followed. Together with the identity evidence, these papers are what a firm would produce if a Registrar's compliance examination, or a court, later asked on what basis it signed.

What version 8 would change in the form

The explanatory notes for version 8, dated May 2026, describe modest changes to Schedule 4 itself. The word "property" in clause 5 would no longer be a defined term. The definition of personal information in clause 6 would be widened to take in state and territory legislation. And the definition of representative agent would exclude a client's own in-house conveyancers and lawyers, a change the notes explain as a way of preventing conflicts of interest.

The same notes describe the rule on when a client authorisation is required as being restated: one would be needed whenever a subscriber signs on behalf of a client, and not when a subscriber digitally signs documents on its own behalf. Because the rules take effect prospectively, as the guidance note puts it, a form signed under version 7 keeps its validity for its term after a new version starts.

Kooky, from Shaka

Kooky edits Queensland Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for Queensland property professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.

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