Solicitor acting for both parties?

[agsturner]

Hi all, just looking for some advice. I'm going to give as much background as I can about this. We are selling our property through an agency that requires all offers to be drawn up into a contract to be formalised. We live in a small(ish) town, with a limited number of conveyancers / solicitors, so this is a rule that has come about to minimise the loss of time and momentum from waiting for lawyers to draw up contracts, which is fair enough, and I understand that.

The situation now is that it appears that one of the potential buyers on our property have gone to the same solicitor we are using, and asked him to draw up a contract for a certain amount. He's then called me, and informed me that he's reluctant to do that because he's not sure that we will accept the offer at that amount, especially given he realises we are still showing people through the property at this stage.

My question is - is this a conflict of interest, that he's come to me as the vendor and divulged what the buyers are doing? I'm not entirely comfortable with our solicitor acting for both parties in this case, particularly as I don't feel it's his place necessarily to be making judgement calls or representations to the buyer with regards to whether or not we will accept the offer. Has anyone come across a similar situation?

 

[Peter_Tersteeg]

I've seen it on one or two occasions, most have been where it's a transaction from one family member to another.

I've never seen it be an actual problem, but to be fair they were all very straight forward transactions and the solicitor or conveyancers role was mostly one of getting the paperwork done properly. Had there been any sort of dispute in the transaction, I'd imagine there would be a substantial conflict.

Personally I wouldn't risk it. It's a small risk IMO, but easily avoided and I doubt that any party would have an issue with it.

 

[DaveM]

Always use different solicitors unless its a related party transfer

 

[Terry_w]

Yes, unwise of a solicitor to do this as conflicts of interest can arise very easily and he may not realise.
However it is possible for them to act for both on covneyancign matters subject to certain rules.

 

[Scott No Mates]

As a vendor I wouldn't be happy with the situation at all. Sure that there is a limited pool of solicitors available however what's wrong with an out of towner for the person who engaged the solicitor last?

the solicitor should have rejected the second approach once he realized.

Do you believe that he will be acting in your best interests at all times knowing that they are also advising the other party? Eg. trying to release deposit, minimising the deposit, ... How will they deal with serving a notice to complete if either party refuses to settle?

 

[agsturner]

That's my thoughts too, he should have rejected the second approach, or at least checked in with me to see if I was comfortable with it, and disclosed to both parties that he is representing the other party. I'm not sure if the potential buyer is aware that he also represents us.

He's come highly recommended by the agent selling our property (although there may be a kickback arrangement here that I'm not aware of as there usually is), so I don't know. I'm not sure that he will act in my best interests, but he certainly hasn't acted in their best interests in informing me that they have requested a contract for an offer below what we would likely accept - and that's enough for me to expect that he could easily let slip to them information that we're not comfortable them knowing either.

Apparently when this arises there's a declaration that both parties sign to say that there will not be a conflict of interest, but how would we know if there is a conflict of interest until one arises? I'm not even comfortable signing such a declaration.

 

[donkey]

Your crazy to use the same solicitor. Even though they have a duty of care to represent both parties impartially this is hard to do. A few years ago I know someone who was mis-represented in a property deal because both parties were using the same solicitor. My friend took the solicitor to the supreme court and won but it was 5 years of stress.

If that solicitor suggests that its ok for him or her to represent both parties then they are a rogue and I would run a mile.