Customer identification and beneficial ownership requirements for a strata title owners corporation

Customer and beneficial ownership identification are essential to ensure you understand who you are doing business with.

A strata title allows owners of part of a property (such as owners of individual apartments in a complex) to have shared ownership of common areas. Examples of these areas could be driveways, gardens or foyers. 

Strata corporations administer and maintain this common property.

Strata corporations are also known as owners corporations or body corporates.

This guide provides you with AUSTRAC’s position on how anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) obligations for customer and beneficial ownership identification of these entities should be applied. 

Unless the strata corporation is a company registered with ASIC, it should be treated as an association for the purposes of customer and beneficial ownership identification.

Customer identification

To identify a strata corporation that is registered as a company with ASIC, the Rules in relation to companies in Part 4.3 should be applied.

To identify a strata corporation not registered as a company with ASIC, the Rules in relation to associations in Part 4.6 should be applied.

Beneficial owner identification

To correctly identify beneficial owners, the Rules in Part 4.12 should be applied. 

If you are unable to determine the identity of a beneficial owner, the Rules in Part 4.12.9 for either a company (if registered with ASIC) or an association, whichever is relevant, should be applied. This allows you to identify and verify, for the purposes of complying with Part 4.12, any individual:

• who is entitled to exercise 25% or more of the voting rights; or
• who holds the position of senior managing official (or equivalent); or
• who would be entitled on dissolution to 25% or more of the property (in the case of an association). 

Senior managing officials are likely to include the presiding officer, secretary or treasurer (however named) of the strata corporation. 

The strata corporation can provide identification documents in addition to documentation that record or support the individual’s position, such as the minutes from the meeting where the managing official was elected, or any other documentation that demonstrates the authority of the individual.