Property Sale - Joint Owners - 2 conveyancing solicitors - one for each owner?

[Oh2bFree]

Where there have been two opposing/estranged joint owners of a property, in researching this, recommendations to use 2 separate conveyancing solicitors for each joint owner have been suggested to uphold and protect the legal rights of each owner, especially where there have been delays and questionable actions by the opposing owners solicitor.

Has anyone ever done this? If so, what was your experience?

How does it work with requesting and holding title deeds?
Payment of sales proceeds ie: which conveyancing client account do the sales proceeds get paid into?
There is a joint mortgage balance outstanding - which conveyancer arranges this to be repaid to the lender?

Any feedback much appreciated!

When I got divorced we ended up in court 3 times as my ex was dicking around. We still used one conveyancer to manage the sale as the split %age was pre-determined by the court.

If one party is frustrating the sale the joint owner can apply to court for an order to sell.

A single conveyancer must act in accordance with the law - the % share of the sales proceeds and the mortgage repayment is not negotiable or circumnavigable at that point. It's not about playing fair at that point. I'm not even sure if a single sale can be managed by two different conveyancers in England and Wales?

If there are concerns about conduct you need to get to court to get the sale progressing. In my case the judge said that if ex didn't agree to a sale at £x price I could reapply and the judge would take over the process on ex's behalf. It sold to the first offer at the sale price within days of the paperwork coming through.

What's the other owner doing that concerns you enough to be considering additional representation?

That’s completely impractical OP. If you’re concerned, agree a conveyancer at a different firm to the “problem” solicitor to act for both parties.

I agree, thank you. This would seem the only way forward to ensure both joint owners rights are protected. It is already being sold with the court overseeing the other joint owners power of attorney, but they are trying to cover up a lot that they have done wrong and trying to rush the sale to do so. They are now trying to get me to rush sign the conveyancing contract on the spot in their office without sending me a copy in advance to inspect.

Yes, it can be done without any problems using two separate solicitors. I actually went through this myself and can confirm that the sale went much more transparently. Personally, I worked with conveyancing-solicitor.co.uk(^https://conveyancing-solicitor.co.uk/^) and they knew exactly how to handle the part with the joint mortgage. Each of us had our own account and nothing got mixed up.