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Conveyancer vs Solicitor in Australia: Which Do You Need?

A conveyancer helps you meet the legal requirements of buying, handles the paperwork and explains the contract (Moneysmart). Where your state gives you the choice, a solicitor can do that same conveyancing work, plus the legal work that sits outside it.

By Daniel Ryan · · Updated · 11 min read

conveyancersolicitorlicensed conveyancerconveyancingbuying a house

Which one do you actually need?

Which one you can use depends on your state

Your state decides whether you get a choice: most license both, but Queensland allows only solicitors for paid work, WA uses a settlement agent, and the ACT has no separate conveyancer licence

A solicitor may be the better fit when the purchase needs legal work outside ordinary conveyancing, such as a trust, a will or a company

Whichever you pick, check the licence and ask who takes over if the matter needs legal proceedings outside it

Sources: NSW Government; Legal Services Commission (Queensland); Consumer Affairs Victoria; Consumer and Business Services SA; CBOS Tasmania; NT Government.

Which professional you can use is decided first by your state, not by preference. Some states give you a genuine choice between a licensed conveyancer and a solicitor; others don’t. In Queensland, conveyancing is a legal service only solicitors and law practices may provide, so there’s no choice to make there. So the first question is whether your state gives you a choice at all.

Where it does, the job title alone doesn’t decide it. Either may be suitable for a straightforward purchase, so compare the individual’s licence, relevant conveyancing experience, proposed scope and quote, not just the title. A solicitor may be the better fit when the transaction is likely to require legal work outside the scope of ordinary conveyancing.

Your choice also affects where you can complain if something goes wrong, because oversight and complaint pathways vary by profession and jurisdiction.

Key takeaways
  • In New South Wales, the government says conveyancers and solicitors are “equally qualified to do conveyancing”, so it’s a genuine choice.
  • In Queensland it isn’t a choice. Conveyancing there is a legal service only solicitors and law practices may provide.
  • Victoria defines a licensed conveyancer as, by definition, not a lawyer; what Consumer Affairs Victoria’s list gives them is legal work and advice about the transfer of title.
  • In New South Wales and Victoria, a different regulator holds each profession. Victoria’s legal regulator says it has “no power over non-lawyers working as conveyancers (except where they work for a lawyer or a law practice)”.
  • A published list of legal work sits outside conveyancing in both New South Wales and Victoria: running court proceedings, setting up or varying a trust, and preparing a will.
Two professionals reviewing printed documents together at a timber table in a plain meeting room
Whichever profession you appoint, ask which body licenses them before you hand over the paperwork.

Is a conveyancer a lawyer?

Usually not. A licensed conveyancer is a separate profession from a solicitor, though solicitors can do conveyancing too. The clearest statement is Victoria’s. Consumer Affairs Victoria defines a licensed conveyancer as “a person other than a legal practitioner, licensed to undertake conveyancing work” (2026). By definition, not a lawyer.

Tasmania puts it in the statute itself. Under the Conveyancing Act 2004 (Tas), a “conveyancer means a person who is not a legal practitioner” who carries on a business preparing land dealings for fee or reward. The words “is not a legal practitioner” are doing the work.

New South Wales is the interesting one, because it doesn’t frame the difference as a hierarchy. The NSW Government says conveyancers and solicitors are “equally qualified to do conveyancing”. Equally qualified for this task, which is not the same as equivalently qualified overall.

The training pathways differ by profession. A licensed conveyancer completes an approved qualification plus supervised conveyancing experience; in Victoria, that means the equivalent of twelve months’ full-time work within the last five years (Consumer Affairs Victoria, 2026). A solicitor completes academic study and Practical Legal Training, is admitted by the Supreme Court, and then holds a practising certificate renewed each year; in New South Wales, that is through the Law Society (The Law Society of NSW).

And that certificate is the line the law actually draws. Victoria treats someone as “qualified” only if they hold a current Australian practising certificate. The regulator notes that an individual without one is unqualified “even if they have formal legal training/a law degree” (2026). A law degree isn’t a licence.

Where is it a real choice, and where isn’t it?

Before comparing anything, check whether your state gives you the option, because it varies by state: in some, paid conveyancing is a solicitor’s job. Who may legally act in each state is set out in the guide linked below.

In New South Wales, it’s a genuine choice: the two are equally qualified for conveyancing, and a law firm doesn’t need a conveyancer’s licence to do the work.

In Queensland, there’s no choice to make. The Legal Services Commission states that conveyancing “is a legal service in Queensland and can only be provided by qualified and licensed solicitors and law practices” (2023). You may still do your own, and the Queensland Government says you should get legal advice even then (2024).

Victoria licenses conveyancers to act, so the choice exists there too, and so do South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory: each registers or licenses a conveyancer as an alternative to a solicitor. That makes five states and territories where the conveyancer-versus-solicitor choice is a real one.

The other three run differently. Western Australia uses a licensed settlement agent or a certified legal practitioner (Consumer Protection WA, 2026); and the ACT treats paid conveyancing as a solicitor’s work, so confirm the route with the ACT Law Society before you appoint someone; and Queensland, as above, is solicitors only for paid work.

Two professions, two regulators, two complaint doors — in NSW and Victoria

Here’s a difference the job-title comparison misses, and it matters most if something later goes wrong.

Victoria says it in one sentence

The Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner regulates lawyers. On conveyancing it is blunt: “While we regulate all lawyers, we have no power over non-lawyers working as conveyancers (except where they work for a lawyer or a law practice).” It then points you elsewhere: “Consumer Affairs Victoria regulates non-lawyer conveyancers.”

So in Victoria, a complaint about a conveyancer goes to the consumer regulator, and a complaint about a lawyer goes to the legal one. Each regulator stays in its own lane.

There’s a twist worth knowing. If you think a conveyancer has strayed past conveyancing into legal work, that is Victoria’s legal regulator’s business. It asks you to report it: “If you believe a non-lawyer conveyancer is doing legal work that is not conveyancing work, please contact the Board.”

New South Wales works the same way

NSW Fair Trading says it is “responsible for regulating licensed conveyancers in NSW” and keeps the register of every licence issued. For the other profession it directs you elsewhere: the Office of the Legal Services Commissioner “is an independent statutory body that can help with complaints about solicitors and barristers in NSW.”

That separation is real, not administrative. NSW Fair Trading regulates the conveyancers; the OLSC’s own complaints page says it “receives all complaints about solicitors and barristers practising in New South Wales”. Two regulators, two professions.

Where to start a service or conduct complaint, by state and territory
State / territory Start here about a conveyancer Start here about a solicitor
NSW NSW Fair Trading Office of the Legal Services Commissioner
VIC Consumer Affairs Victoria Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner
QLD Not applicable — solicitors only Legal Services Commission (Qld)
SA Consumer and Business Services Legal Profession Conduct Commissioner
WA Consumer Protection WA Legal Practice Board of WA
TAS Consumer, Building and Occupational Services (CBOS) Legal Profession Board of Tasmania
NT Agents Licensing Board (NT) Law Society of the Northern Territory
ACT No separate conveyancer licence — solicitors do the work ACT Law Society

Both columns are the starting point for a service or conduct complaint, so they compare like with like. The conveyancer column is each jurisdiction’s consumer or agents regulator; the solicitor column is drawn from the Office of the NSW Legal Services Commissioner’s published national list of legal complaint bodies (2025). A costs dispute, a compensation-fund claim, or court or tribunal proceedings can follow a different route. In South Australia, Consumer and Business Services registers conveyancers, and its decisions are reviewable by the South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. In the Northern Territory, complaints about a conveyancing agent go to the Agents Licensing Board under the Agents Licensing Act 1979. In the ACT, paid conveyancing is generally handled by a solicitor rather than a separate licensed conveyancer.

The practical point: ask which body licenses the person you’re about to appoint, and check their licence on that body’s register where it publishes one.

What is a conveyancer not authorised to do?

Both New South Wales and Victoria publish the boundary, and the two lists are close to identical. They are state lists, not an Australian rule, so treat each as its own.

Victoria’s is the fuller quote. The Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner states that “conveyancing work does not include legal work carried out for the purpose of”:

  • “commencing or maintaining legal proceedings”;
  • “applying for a grant of probate or letters of administration”;
  • “establishing a corporation or varying the constitution of a corporation”;
  • “creating, varying or extinguishing a trust”;
  • “preparing a testamentary instrument”;
  • “giving investment or financial advice”; or
  • “investing money otherwise than as provided for in Part 5 of the Conveyancers Act (which deals with trust money and trust accounts)” (2021).

NSW Fair Trading publishes its own list under the heading “Work a conveyancer is not authorised to do”. It covers the same ground: court proceedings, trusts, wills, setting up a company, and investment or financial advice. It adds one threshold Victoria’s doesn’t, a non-residential mortgage above $7 million.

What a conveyancer is authorised to do is narrower than that long exclusion list suggests, and we set out the full scope of a conveyancer’s role separately. Victoria describes it as “some legal work in connection with conveyancing transactions including preparing agreements, conveyances, transfers, leases or mortgages in the course of those transactions” (Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner, 2021). Some, in connection with. Not general legal advice.

Not every conveyancer has the same licence

This one is a genuine check to make. In New South Wales, a restricted licence limits what a conveyancer can do on their own. They need supervision by a full licensee, or by an Australian legal practitioner who holds an unrestricted practising certificate (NSW Fair Trading). An unrestricted NSW licence is broader, covering residential and commercial conveyancing, mortgages, business sales and rural property.

So the idea that commercial property means you need a solicitor isn’t right in New South Wales. What matters is which licence the person holds. Ask.

What happens if it turns into a dispute?

This is where the boundary bites. In New South Wales and Victoria, commencing or maintaining legal proceedings falls outside licensed conveyancing work. So if a dispute may need court or tribunal proceedings, your conveyancer can’t run them, and someone else has to.

Between an argument and a courtroom there’s a lot of ground, though, and the published boundaries don’t spell out what happens to your conveyancer in it. A caveat lodged on the title, a fight over the deposit, a settlement that doesn’t happen: the boundary only clearly bites at proceedings.

That makes it a question to ask before you appoint anyone, while everything still feels friendly. What happens if this becomes contested? Who takes it from there, and what does that cost me?

One thing worth knowing if you do use a solicitor in New South Wales: the Law Society runs a Conveyancing Dispute Resolution Scheme for disputes under a contract for the sale of land, as an impartial alternative to litigation or arbitration. It’s narrow. It’s available only where the solicitor is a Law Society member, both parties and their solicitors agree on the issues and to abide by the determination, and the amount in dispute doesn’t exceed $25,000. It settles a contract dispute; it isn’t a complaint channel about the solicitor.

Insurance, and who carries the risk

Both professions carry professional indemnity insurance in New South Wales and Victoria: each state requires it of solicitors and licensed conveyancers alike. The insurance table below sets out the conveyancer and settlement-agent side; a solicitor’s cover is set separately, through each state’s legal regulator and practising-certificate regime. In New South Wales the conveyancer side of the ledger is stronger than the job titles suggest.

New South Wales requires both solicitors and licensed conveyancers to hold professional indemnity insurance. And if a conveyancer is dishonest with money you’ve entrusted to them, you may have access to a compensation fund administered by NSW Fair Trading. Two layers, not one.

Several jurisdictions do publish a figure, and they don’t all mean the same thing. Victoria and Tasmania set a $2 million statutory minimum, and Western Australia’s Act sets a $250,000 per-claim floor. South Australia runs an annually reset approved scheme, and New South Wales takes a different route again: it mandates an approved master policy rather than naming an amount in the rules.

Conveyancer or settlement-agent professional indemnity cover, by state and territory
State / territory Published cover Instrument
VIC Minimum $2 million Consumer Affairs Victoria (approved broker)
TAS Minimum $2 million Conveyancing Regulations 2025 (reg 6), under the Conveyancing Act 2004
SA Sum insured set by the CBS-approved scheme, reset each scheme year (confirm the current amount) CBS-approved scheme
WA Statutory minimum $250,000 per claim (fidelity and PI); cover via the Commissioner’s Master Policy Settlement Agents Act 1981, s 35
NSW Mandatory approved master policy (Vero, 2026–27); cover set by that policy NSW Fair Trading; Approved PI Policy Order 2017
NT Required; no current figure confirmed Agents Licensing Act 1979 (NT)
QLD Not applicable — conveyancing is solicitors only —
ACT Not applicable — no separate conveyancer licence —

These are different instruments, so read the column, not just the number: Victoria and Tasmania set a statutory minimum, South Australia runs an annually reset scheme, Western Australia sets an Act floor topped up by a master policy, and New South Wales approves a master policy. Sources: Consumer Affairs Victoria; Conveyancing Regulations 2025 (Tas); Consumer and Business Services SA; Settlement Agents Act 1981 (WA) s 35; NSW Fair Trading (Conveyancers Licensing (Approved Professional Indemnity Insurance Policy) Order 2017); Agents Licensing Act 1979 (NT). A scheme or master-policy amount is reset periodically, so confirm the current figure before you rely on it.

When is a solicitor worth it?

The government and regulator guidance reviewed for this article doesn’t provide a checklist of transactions that require a solicitor rather than a conveyancer; what follows is reasoning from the published boundaries, not guidance a regulator has issued.

What the regulators do publish is the reverse: lists of work a conveyancer is not authorised to do. If your purchase involves creating or varying a trust, preparing a will, or setting up a company, that work sits outside conveyancing in both New South Wales and Victoria. Victoria’s list also covers applying for a grant of probate or letters of administration, the court’s authority to deal with a deceased estate. A solicitor in New South Wales or Victoria can do that work and the transfer together.

Be careful how far that stretches, though. Those lists cover creating a trust and preparing a testamentary instrument, which is a will. They don’t say a conveyancer can’t act on a purchase being taken in the name of a trust that already exists, and they say nothing about selling a property out of a deceased estate.

There’s one telling asymmetry. Consumer Affairs Victoria publishes side-by-side lists of what a legal practitioner can do and what a conveyancer can do. “Advise how different types of title may affect ownership rights and responsibilities” appears only on the legal practitioner’s list (2021). That isn’t a prohibition, and the page doesn’t frame it as one. But if title type is central to your purchase, it’s worth getting legal advice on it.

And for off-the-plan purchases specifically, Consumer Affairs Victoria says you “should seek independent legal advice before signing a contract” (2021). Note it says legal advice, not a solicitor, and in Victoria a conveyancer may give legal advice about the transfer of title.

The practical dividing line

For an ordinary property transfer, the NSW Government says conveyancers and solicitors are “equally qualified to do conveyancing”, so paying for a solicitor doesn’t buy you a better-qualified version of the same job. The case for a solicitor gets stronger when the purchase also needs legal work outside a conveyancer’s authorised scope, such as creating or varying a trust, establishing a company, or preparing a testamentary instrument. That is a conclusion from the regulatory boundaries above, not a government rule that those transactions must be handled entirely by a solicitor.

The short version

Most states give you a real choice: New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory all license a conveyancer alongside solicitors. Queensland doesn’t: paid conveyancing there is solicitors’ work, though you may still do your own; Western Australia uses a settlement agent or a legal practitioner; and in the ACT, where paid conveyancing is a solicitor’s work, confirm the route with the ACT Law Society. Where the choice exists, no government or regulator source compares the two on price. We’ve set out how much a conveyancer costs separately, and whether you legally need one at all.

Before you appoint anyone, ask three things. Which body licenses you, and what does your licence let you do? If the matter needs legal proceedings outside that licence, who takes over, and what does that cost? And is your professional indemnity cover current, and which policy covers the work?

See it in action
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Whichever professional you engage handles the contract and legal work within the scope you agree. A knest.ai property report surfaces mapped property and area indicators: flood and bushfire exposure, zoning, power lines and noise, worth a read before you sign or bid.

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Frequently asked questions

Is a conveyancer a lawyer?

Usually not. Consumer Affairs Victoria defines a licensed conveyancer as a person other than a legal practitioner, and Tasmania’s Conveyancing Act says a conveyancer is a person who is not a legal practitioner. New South Wales takes a different angle, describing conveyancers and solicitors as equally qualified to do conveyancing.

Who do I complain to if my conveyancer gets it wrong?

That depends on your state, and it isn’t the same body that handles lawyers. In Victoria, Consumer Affairs Victoria regulates non-lawyer conveyancers, and the Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner says it has no power over them unless they work for a lawyer or a law practice. In New South Wales, NSW Fair Trading regulates licensed conveyancers while the Office of the Legal Services Commissioner takes complaints about solicitors.

Can a solicitor provide conveyancing services?

Yes. A solicitor is a lawful route for conveyancing across Australia, subject to their practising entitlement, competence and the scope you agree. That doesn’t mean every solicitor specialises in conveyancing or is the right fit for every transaction. New South Wales exempts law firms from the conveyancer licensing requirement, and Western Australia treats a certified legal practitioner as one of its two lawful routes to settlement work.

Is a conveyancer cheaper than a solicitor?

There’s no reliable answer in the sources here: no government or regulator source compares the two on price, so “conveyancers are cheaper” is a rule of thumb, not a fact. Fees vary by provider, state and complexity, so compare written quotes on a like-for-like basis, including disbursements. Our guide to what a conveyancer costs breaks down the professional fee and the disbursements separately.

Sources

Daniel Ryan, Editor, Buyer Guides & Property, knest.ai

General information only. This article is general information for Australian home buyers. It isn’t personal legal, financial, credit or tax advice. Licensing and complaint rules differ by state and change over time. Check your own situation with a licensed conveyancer or solicitor in the relevant state. knest.ai is an AI property-intelligence platform that supports buyer judgment. It isn’t a conveyancer, a solicitor or a legal service, and it doesn’t replace one.

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