Conflict of Interests? Joint owner's controller is a solicitor also acting as conveyancer in sale

[Oh2bFree]

Outline - I am joint owner of a property held as joint tenants with a family member who has gone into care. The family member opposed the sale through legal representation by a court appointed controller who was initially acting as her solicitor. Lengthy proceedings ensued with the judgement issued that delayed the sale until the family member/joint owner went into care. This happened only a few months after the judgement was given.

However the property has only now been ordered to proceed to sale, after 2 years of the house having been left vacant and unsold due to the patient being moved around several care homes but never returning to live at the property. The solicitors firm ran up a hefty bill paid for the previous court proceedings by Legal Aid. The controller/solicitor has subsequently left his previous legal firm and started up a new one. He has proposed his own new firm do the conveyancing. He appears to be instructing an assistant to deal directly with communications and handle the sale. The assistant is a qualified solicitor but not certified to practice conveyancing. I understand that conveyancing solitors can instruct trainees or personal assistants to carry out a lot of the administrative work.

The question is, does the fact that the Controller is also acting as the covert conveyancer instructing his assistant behind the scenes represent a conflict of interests? I understand it to be the case that a controller cannot do the conveyancing but does this apply where the controller is also a solicitor? Even if another solicitor from his new firm were acting as the conveyancing solicitor, would the bias not infringe on neutrality and represent conflict of interests?

I would be interested on anyone's experience or take on this.

What country do you live in? The "controller" part of this is unfamiliar to me.

Where do you think the conflict lies? If the controller is acting on behalf of the other joint tenant then his duty is to them and that will include ensuring that the house is sold for as much as possible and that the costs of sale are as low as possible so that the net proceeds are maximised. What is your concern?

Controller term also refers to power of attorney.

I think the conflict lies in impartiality and lack of it in this case. The history of the power of attorney (who is a solicitor) is one of blanking, deception, huge delays and running up huge legal costs against the property. I fear this will happen again with orchestrated segueways into more legal actions along the way.

Also it is my understanding that a secretary or assistant, unless licensed as a practicing solicitor, cannot undertake the conveyancing work itself, only assist a qualified, certified practising conveyancing solicitor, and this cannot be the power of attorney/controller. To date, no conveyancing solicitor has been named.

I'm confused OP, where is this?

If England then the assistant being a qualified solicitor is fine for them to do conveyancing assuming they have a full (normal) practising certificate. They don't need anything else and frankly conveyancing is towards the bottom of the skills level for a solicitor. Many conveyancers aren't qualified solicitors and that is the difference.

The difference would be in they have a limited practising certificate that doesn't permit them to do regulated activities, that is very rare when working at a firm, it's more for solicitors that just do a bit of work for themselves

If you think that the Solicitor has run up excessive costs then talk to The Court of Protection

It took some investigation on my part but it appears “controller” is a term used in Northern Ireland.

OP’s refusal to clarify this may render some of the advice given in this thread incorrect if posters have assumed OP is in England&Wales.

On researching this, the word 'controller' appeared in searches as well as 'Power of Attorney' for England and Wales. Was just researching as a general concept re: conflict of interest, but yes Collaborate, there do appear to be differences as 'controller' is a term used in Northern Ireland where there are some differences in law, thanks for highlighting that!

@Oh2bFree if you have genuine concerns you can report it to the Office of Public Guardian (OPG) who the Power of Attorney is answerable to and they may do an investigation.

Thank you! Yes, it appears at this stage that may be required before the sale proceeds any further.

Or just appoint a different conveyancer?

I can’t see what conflict could actually arise given you can DIY conveyancing, but if you don’t feel comfortable choose a different conveyancer.