To verify ownership of a property, GS 009 says to "Check that each property is owned by the trustee and is correctly and appropriately recorded as an investment of the SMSF."
It lists a contract of sale, or declaration / acknowledgement of trust as examples of documents to confirm who owns the investment.
Would a bare trust deed / custodian trust deed also count towards demonstrating ownership? Such deeds explicitly state who owns the property - the trustee of the bare trust, for the benefit of the SMSF.
Would a title search (Showing bare trustee as owner) + executed bare trust deed, together contitute sufficient appropriate evidence to confirm the property is an investent of the SMSF?
I also check the COS for the history, just had an audit where it is in the SMSF corporate Trustee ATF the SMSF, no and or nominee which can be used in VIC. Have suggested they seek legal advice as could be quite an issue now. Settled in the 2024 FY so also good to ask for the COS and bare trust deed etc even if they only paid a small deposit in 2023 FY so as to pick up these errors early.