Who are you dealing with?

Unless you live like a hermit, you are likely to be interacting with people, organisations and businesses regularly. In your personal life, you might be buying a car privately, selling furniture on facebook, or booking a well-deserved holiday. In the business space, you may be entering into a contract to provide goods or services or entering into a lease agreement for the use of a property.

When things go wrong, one of the first questions we will ask you is “who were you dealing with?”.

Sometimes, it is a person. You should always find out a person’s full name (not just a first name) and obtain an address or contact number.

But increasingly, you are dealing with entities that are far more complicated than merely a person’s name.

If someone says you are dealing with a Trust, you need the name of the Trust, but you also need to know the names of the Trustee of that Trust. The entity you are dealing with is the Trustee, rather than the Trust itself. The Trustee could be a person, or it could be a Company.

If there is a company involved, and a good indication would be an end to the name like ‘Pty Ltd’, or ‘Proprietary Limited’, or maybe just ‘Limited’- you can ask whether there is an ACN (Australian Company Number) or an ABN (Australian Business Number). Be very wary if a company has neither. There are free ways to check online whether it is a valid ABN or ACN if the Company is in Australia, located at https://abr.business.gov.au/

If you are dealing with a trading name, there needs to be something else behind the name – either a Company, or a person. A trading name on its own is not able to sue, or be sued, or enter into contracts. Similarly, if you are dealing with a partnership, you should also ask who the partners are.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. You have worked hard for your money, so don’t hand it over to just anyone, and certainly don’t hand it over when you don’t even know who is receiving it.