AMS Client Custodianship | Aintree Group Legal

AMS Ivanhoe Lawyers Client Custodianship

Following the closure of AMS Ivanhoe Lawyers, Aintree Group Legal has taken custody of most of their clients’ deeds, wills and titles.

The team at Aintree Group Legal are very happy to continue as permanent custodians of AMS clients’ documents, and we welcome the opportunity to be your new legal representative for these matters and provide any other assistance you may require going forward.

Our legal team has a vast wealth of knowledge and experience across Estate Planning, Trusts and Self-Managed Super Funds, Corporate and Commercial Law, Succession Planning, Intellectual Property and Trading, Property Law, and Disputes. We also work in close collaboration with other professional advisors to ensure you receive the best level of service and care. If you’d like to find out more about what we do, please click here.

Please be assured that your documents will be held securely with us for as long as needed until you have nominated a permanent custodian, regardless of whether you choose to stay with Aintree Group Legal or not.

If you have reached a decision and wish to nominate a permanent custodian for your documents, please review the steps below and complete our Nominate Custodian form.

The decision to provide support to clients of AMS Ivanhoe Lawyers has been made in line with our values of being courageous custodians of our community. We take the weight of this responsibility seriously, and will work hard to ensure that these clients feel safe and cared for during this process.

How to appoint permanent custodianship of your documents:

There are several requirements to consider, whether you are keeping your documents in the care of Aintree Group Legal or requesting the transfer of your documents to you personally or another legal representative. Some of these requirements are legislative, and outside of our control, some are put in place to protect the security of your sensitive and valuable documents and information.

Please click to expand each section to read the information below. If you have any questions, you are welcome to call us directly on 03 9851 7929 or complete the enquiry form below.

Releasing Property Titles

Handing over your certificates of title, there are three options available: release to Aintree Group Legal permanently, release it to you directly, or release it to your new legal representative. The requirements differ depending on who you wish to release your title to. When we talk about titles, we can be referring to either a paper title or an electronic title.

Releasing the title to Aintree Group Legal permanently:
1. A request must be made by everyone registered on the title, this can be done via our ‘Nominate Custodian’ webform.
2. A representative from Aintree Group Legal will be in touch with you to verify your identity and provide further details.
3. Your titles will be transferred in the permanent safe custody of Aintree Group Legal.

Releasing the title to you directly:
1. A request must be made by everyone registered on the title, this can be done via email, phone or via our ‘Nominate Custodian’ webform. Once we have received your request, we will send you an authority which must be signed by everyone registered on the title. Claims have arisen where titles have been handed over to one co-owner without the consent of the other co-owners.
2. We need you to verify the identity of everyone registered on the title. We do this by sighting photographic identification such as a driver’s licence or passport. To maintain the security of your identification, we ask that these items are not sent via email (which is not a secure form of transmission). We will send you a link to upload copies of your documents.
3. For security reasons, we will only send paper titles by registered post to the client’s address as listed on their identifying document, or a nominated post office box. We prefer to hand them over in person or to use a courier. Any courier or registered mail will be at the expense of the title holder, payable in advance, we may charge an administration fee depending on the extent of the request.
4. Should you prefer to collect the title from our office, the person collecting the title must provide identification and sign an acknowledgement of receipt of the document, we ask for 7 days’ notice to prepare the documents for collection.
5. We will keep an electronic copy of the title as well as all authorities and receipts.

Releasing a title to another solicitor or legal firm:
1. Where the request is made by another law firm, it must be in writing on the letterhead of the law firm and it should state the name of the client(s) the firm is acting for.
2. The requesting firm must provide us with an authority signed by all registered proprietors giving consent to release the title. Where a registered person cannot legally sign, we must receive a certified copy of any Enduring Power of Attorney (EPOA) before the transfer can be made. Please note, the authority must also be signed by the relevant attorney.
3. The firm must provide proof of identity of everyone registered on the title. This is done by sending us photographic identification such as a driver’s licence or passport. To maintain the security of identification, we ask that these items are not sent via email (which is not a secure form of transmission). We will send a link to upload copies of the documents.
4. For security reasons, we will only send paper titles by registered post to the address of the firm as listed on the letterhead. We prefer to hand them over in person or to use a courier. Any courier or registered mail will be at the expense of the receiving firm, payable in advance.
5. Should the receiving lawyer prefer to collect the title from our office, the person collecting the title must provide identification and sign an acknowledgement of receipt of the document, we ask for 7 days’ notice to prepare the documents for collection. Where a request is made to send the title by post we will ask the receiving party to accept responsibility for any loss of the title(s) in the post by signing an authority to post.
6. We will keep an electronic photocopy of the title as well as all authorities and receipts.
7. Where the receiving firm requests to collect the paper title, their representative must provide photo identification and sign an acknowledgment of receipt. A copy of the ID and the signed acknowledgment will be kept on file in our office.
8. The Land Registry will only be notified of the change in control of the title after we have established the identity and authorities of the person/people who made the request and who holds a signed client authorisation form.

Releasing Wills, Deeds or other documents

You can elect to keep your documents in the safe custody of Aintree Group Legal, or you can request to release your documents to a different legal representative or to you directly.

Releasing the documents to Aintree Group Legal permanently:
1. A request must be made indicating each individual or entity involved, this can be done via our ‘Nominate Custodian’ webform.
2. A representative from Aintree Group Legal will be in touch with you to verify your identity and provide further details.
3. Your documents will be transferred in the permanent safe custody of Aintree Group Legal.

Releasing the documents to you directly:
1. A request must be made indicating each individual or entity involved, this can be done via email, phone or via our ‘Nominate Custodian’ webform. Once we have received your request, we will send you an authority which must be signed by everyone involved. Where there are multiple names on a deed, we need to receive an authority from all parties, or where a corporate trustee at least one Director. Claims have arisen where deeds have been handed over to one named party without the consent of the other named parties. You will have to provide proof that you are a Director of the company by providing a current company search.
2. We need you to verify the identity of everyone involved in the matter. We do this by sighting photographic identification such as a driver’s licence or passport. To maintain the security of your identification, we ask that these items are not sent via email (which is not a secure form of transmission). We will send you a link to upload copies of your documents.
3. For security reasons, we will only send paper documents by registered post to the client’s address as listed on their identifying document. We prefer to hand them over in person or to use a courier. Any courier or registered mail will be at the expense of the client, payable in advance.
4. Should you prefer to collect the documents from our office, the person collecting the title must provide identification and sign an acknowledgement of receipt of the document, we ask for 7 days’ notice to prepare the documents for collection.
5. We will keep an electronic photocopy of all documents as well as all authorities and receipts.

Releasing Deeds, Wills and other documents to another solicitor or legal firm:
1. Where the request is made by another law firm, it must be in writing on the letterhead of the law firm and it should state the name of the client(s) the firm is acting for.
2. The requesting firm must provide us with an authority signed by all relevant clients giving consent to release the documents as requested. Where a person cannot legally sign, we must receive a certified copy of an Enduring Power of Attorney (EPOA) before the transfer can be made. Please note, the authority must also be signed by the relevant attorney.
3. The firm must provide proof of identity of everyone concerned. This is done by sending us photographic identification such as a driver’s licence or passport. To maintain the security of identification, we ask that these items are not sent via email (which is not a secure form of transmission). We will send a link to upload copies of the documents.
4. For security reasons, we will only send paper documents by registered post to the address of the firm as listed on their letterhead. It is preferred to hand them over in person or to use a courier. Any courier or registered mail will be at the expense of the receiving firm, payable in advance.
5. Should the receiving lawyer prefer to collect the documents from our office, the person collecting the original documents must provide identification and sign an acknowledgement of receipt of the document(s), we ask for 7 days’ notice to prepare the documents for collection. Where a request is made to send the documents by post we will ask the receiving party to accept responsibility for any loss of the documents in the post by signing an authority to post.
6. We will keep an electronic photocopy of the documents as well as all authorities and receipts.
7. Where the receiving firm requests to collect the original paper documents, their representative must provide photo identification and sign an acknowledgment of receipt. A copy of the ID and the signed acknowledgment will be kept on file in our office.

Further Information

For more information about delivering up documents please see these two articles Legal Practitioners’ Liability Committee (LPLC) wrote for the Law Institute Journal:
1. Delivering up documents – June 2009
2. You will be missed: but what about your files? – January 2011

Additional LPLC Resource: Be careful when handing over certificates of title – May 2015

For more information about Electronic Titles (eCTs) refer to the Land Registry Guide to certificates of title in PEXA.

If you have read the above information and wish to nominate a custodian for your documents, please click ‘Nominate Custodian’.

Nominate Custodian

If you have not received personal communication from us regarding this matter and believe you should have, or if you have another enquiry related to the custody of AMS Ivanhoe Lawyers’ client files, please contact us using the details provided below.

Need to reach us about an AMS Ivanhoe Lawyers client matter?

We have a dedicated enquiry line specifically for AMS Ivanhoe Lawyers client custodianship, which we will be attending to as a matter of priority.

Please call 03 9851 7929 and someone from our team will return your call within 5 business days.

You can also submit enquiries using the form below.

"*" indicates required fields

Name

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Name:*

First Last

Phone Number:*

Email:*

Preferred method of contact:*

Phone

Please include your enquiry below, so we know who would be best to contact you from our team:*

CAPTCHA

Who We Are

At Aintree Group Legal we protect what you’ve worked hard to build, so you can sleep well at night.

We understand there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ when it comes to business and estate planning, and you need legal advice that can support you through a wide range of endeavours and challenges.

Aintree Group Legal is part of Aintree Group, an integrated professional services firm based in Hawthorn East. If you are new to Aintree Group and would like to see what we’re all about, we encourage you to visit our website or check us out on social media to get to know us better.