Conflict of interest during house purchase

jon9801

What should I do (if anything)

Whilst buying a house last year, I arranged with a local conveyancing solicitor for them to assist me through the process. I accepted their quotation of cost, paid an initial fee to get things going. Being a first time buyer I was keen to procede quickly and had no real hold ups.

After about 3-4 weeks, I got a call from the Solicitor that she could not longer represent me as her company was now to represent the seller. At the time I didn't really feel like i had a choice in the matter and was keen to get moved in swiftly, so i arranged for another solicitor to represent me.

It turns out that the seller works in the estate agents office and they would be getting a discount on their fee (Hence I move over so this can happen). As well my fees with the second solicitor where about £100 more.

I've had a few opinions from folk at work that this shouldn't be allowed to happen. The more I think about it I wonder if i should have stuck my ground and tried to demand that it wasn't my problem and I had entered a legal contract with the first solicitor as they had accepted my money (which they had paid back).

So I'm wondering if I should write to the first lawyer and have a go at pointing out some of these facts (in an attempt to get some cash off them) OR write to some regulatory body (if one such exists)?

Any advice, greatly appriciated.

G_M

At the time you could have told the solicitor he took you on and signed an agreement, and he should then have resolved his conflict of interest by declining to act for the seller.

However, you agreed to terminate your contract with the solicitor and move to another firm. So I do not see that you can now do anything about it. Sorry!

HousehunterScotland

Why did this take 3-4 weeks to be noticed?

I recently dealt with the sale of a house after a death, and the person who offered managed to choose the same lawyer I had been using (joint executor). This was picked up by the estate agent, unfortunately the lawyer didn't notice the address and pick up of the fact that he was dealing with the estate, so they simply passed the buyer on to another local lawyer.

I don't know though if the buyer must always just find another lawyer, or if in my case the lawyer just had the extra involvement of being an executor as well as the lawyer who was going to deal with the sale.

Debt_Free_Chick

jon9801 wrote: »

So I'm wondering if I should write to the first lawyer and have a go at pointing out some of these facts (in an attempt to get some cash off them) OR write to some regulatory body (if one such exists)?

Any advice, greatly appriciated.

Did you lose out in any way?

If not, then there is nothing "to claim"

Kaleidoscope1972

well their obligation was to you if they agreed to act for you first, so they should have refused to act for the other party..so yes they were in the wrong..but sadly I dont think there is anything you can do now as you agreed to terminate the agreement with them..
you should have stood your ground and refused.

Hopejack

I think you should have brought it up at the time really - sorry! How long ago are we talking - you say last year? It is wrong what they did - I think to take it up with any regulatory body you have to have exhausted the company's internal complaints procedure first.

jon9801

Thanks for all your replies.
I might drop the original solicitor a letter and see where it goes from there. I agree it should have been something I dealt with differently and promptly at the time. Being a niave FTB'er, I was not thinking this way, more concerned with getting things back on track and not feeling like I had a choice.
To answer the Q's, it actually got noticed by the estate agent. They informed me and suggested it would be a problem. When I asked them why it wasn't noticed earlier, they said, 'well if we'd opened the file, we might have noticed'. To be honest, I'm unclear wether the seller already had the solcitor 9and they shouldn't have taken me on), or wether they arranged this after my purchase gathered pace and they started to do thier things.
We didn't 'lose' anything, but we where probably delayed 3-4 weeks and paid around £100 more with the new solicitor.
This was all going on between Sept-Dec
Will probably do as you suggest Hopejack and try the internal complaints procedure first (as i don't think I have the full picture) and then maybe something more regulatory, the Law society was mentioned as an option. anyone has a better option or am I wasting my time? I'm motivated here by ideally getting some compensation but also sending a message to the solicitor that thet acted wrongly (by a body that can do just that)

Dom3663

If your prepared to put a bit of time in to writing letters etc I can't see any harm in processing a complaint/discrepancy...although you did agree to cancel the contract so it will be hard to present your case. You could play a sympathy card that you were a FTB, but in legal terms it makes no difference I guess...
If you do precede with a claim though, I wouldn't use them again lol