RTO.au / Registration

Changes that require approval and changes that do not

Getting this wrong in either direction is expensive.

Providers must notify or seek approval for certain changes, typically including ownership and control, high managerial agents, financial position, and scope. Others, including most operational changes, do not require anything.

Over-notifying is harmless and wastes time. Under-notifying, particularly around change of ownership or control, is a serious matter and is one of the more common causes of regulatory action.

Change of control is broader than a sale. Changes to shareholding, directorships and the people who exercise effective control can all trigger it, and corporate restructures that feel internal frequently do.

Timeframes are usually short and are counted from the change rather than from when somebody noticed, which catches providers whose company changes were made by an accountant without reference to the registration.

The practical control is a standing arrangement that anybody making a company or personnel change checks the notification requirements first. That is a five-minute step and it prevents the most avoidable category of finding.

It is worth adding that the people whose changes trigger notification are frequently unaware of it. Directors, shareholders and senior managers make ordinary corporate changes without any reason to connect them to a training registration, which is why the control has to sit with whoever files the company paperwork.