We are licensed conveyancers and solicitors practising in property law across NSW, and we call on NSW Fair Trading, PEXA, the Law Society of NSW and the AIC (NSW) to act on the practice of "deposit flicking" — where real estate agents redirect deposits to a private company, Agency Settlements, which by its own description serves agents and acts for neither vendor nor purchaser.

We object because:

1. It appears unlawful. Section 86 of the Property and Stock Agents Act requires stakeholder agents to retain deposits in their trust account. Agents cannot redirect deposits or amend the contract to appoint a substitute stakeholder.
2. It has no place on PEXA. Agency Settlements represents no party and holds no interest in the land, yet proposes to join every affected workspace — adding payment lines that increase errors, corrective payments and fraud risk, borne by practitioners, not by it.\
3. It creates systemic risk. Concentrating deposits from thousands of transactions into one company creates a honeypot for cyber-criminals and a single point of failure, in place of a distributed system of regulated, compensation-backed trust accounts.
   It has no regulatory endorsement. NSW Fair Trading confirmed in writing (9 June 2026) that it does not endorse this model.
4. We endorse the formal submissions made by Dott & Crossitt to NSW Fair Trading, PEXA and the Law Society, and call on those bodies to confirm that deposits must be held as the law and contract require, and that no third-party deposit-holder may be added to a transaction or workspace without both parties' express agreement.

Practitioners: add your name, with firm and licence details in the comments for verification.