Trust funds managed by Consumer Affairs Victoria
We manage eight funds established by Acts of Parliament:
- Domestic Builders Fund
- Motor Car Traders Guarantee Fund
- Residential Bonds Account
- Residential Bonds Investment Income Account
- Residential Tenancies Fund
- Sex Work Regulation Fund
- Victorian Consumer Law Fund
- Victorian Property Fund
For more information, including financial details, see page 27 of the Annual Report 2020-21 (PDF, 700KB).
Statement of Expectations
In June 2019, the previous Minister for Consumer Affairs issued a Statement of Expectations (SOE) to Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV) and the Business Licensing Authority (BLA) for 2019–21.
This SOE set out two-year governance and performance objectives aimed at improving CAV’s administration and enforcement of regulation to reduce its impact on business and the community. A copy of the SOE can be located on our website.
The performance objectives identified in the SOE fall under three broad objectives – timeliness, risk-based strategies, and compliance-related assistance and advice.
Improved timeliness
The SOE directed CAV to implement timeliness measures to make it easier for businesses to complete online transactions and reduce red tape and duplication for registered fundraisers. We continued to reduce the time required for Victorians to interact with us via more efficient digital services.
We launched new, easy to use online forms to save time for motor car traders, second-hand dealers and pawnbrokers to update their registration details. Work continued to develop our digital platform, myCAV, to support the introduction of the Professional Engineers Registration Scheme.
In recognition of the pressure businesses faced and as part of the State of Emergency, we granted extensions of time for certain regulated entities to meet reporting obligations, hold annual general meetings and lodge annual statements. See ‘Our Achievements – Helping Victorian businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic’ on page 11 for further detail.
There are now reduced registration and reporting requirements for charities who fundraise in Victoria. The launch of new business and technology frameworks has reduced time spent on registration and reporting for charities and fundraisers. See ‘Our Achievements – ‘Reduced reporting requirements for fundraisers’ on page 12.
Risk-based strategies
To improve compliance in areas of greatest risk to regulatory outcomes, we continued to ensure risk was at the centre of decision making. For more information about our risk-based approach to regulation, see ‘Our regulatory approach – Risk-based’ on page 7.
We refined our compliance programs this year to address a drop in on-site inspections driven by COVID-19 restrictions. This included increasing desk-based activities to check compliance of estate agents’ and conveyancers’ trust accounts. Breaches of trust account laws are a key indicator for misappropriation of trust monies.
We also used intelligence gathered by our team and worked with partners to inform our inspections and investigations of high-risk rooming houses and rooming house operators, and estate agents to check compliance with underquoting and trust accounting laws. See ‘Our achievements’ on pages 11–25 for further detail about the approach and outcomes of these compliance strategies.