Conflict of interest - does this sound normal to you or would you be concerned?

[mogernator]

In the painful house buying process - near the end. Done the survey, searches. On the enquiries. Solicitor, out of the blue, suddenly turns round and says there is a conflict of interest. They've realised they acted for the seller when he bought the property so now cannot act for us. Is this true? Or are they now just aware of information that is detriment to our house purchase sale? For context, we are having trouble obtaining title deeds from the seller. There is a restrictive covenant on it and we need to be clear about it all as it might affect what we can do. The house is a massive project. We don't want to do a big extension, but we do want to remodel and need to make sure this will be allowed. all a bit vague right now. There is also unclarity over right of way down the road, which we need deeds for from the vendor, which he doesn't appear to have either. Help! Are we being sold down the river, and is there stuff that the solicitor who dumped us is not saying, or is it genuine conflict of interest and we just engage another one and carry on until we get the title deeds etc sorted out and carry on?

But how has it got to this stage and they have only just realised it's a conflict of interest?

i don't think he has them. He was a cash buyer so didn't need all this for a mortgage. But I'm just guessing.

They didn't just realise it was a conflict of interest. They just realised they acted for the vendor when he bought the house.

How can someone be acting in your best interests when they're in contractual negotiations with an existing client?

They can't.

I think I'm just feeling very stressed by the whole thing. Sure it's normal to have all these bumps in the process.

Sounds true to me. It's something you could easily verify with the vendor via the estate agents, if it weren't. That said, it's possible that the solicitor may remember or have records of something to your detriment. Either way, it's to your benefit to engage someone new. Presumably you could use someone else at the same firm to minimise delay?

ok thanks all. I think we've found someone else. It's just they worried me because they said :

I have spoken with my colleague regarding the conflict and as discussed he mentioned that they may know information about the property which would compromise their position. As far as I am aware it is not uncommon for a company to act for someone who purchased the property previously. In my opinion it’s a little odd that they decided to cease acting for you at that late stage it automatically puts you on alert.

@Devilinthedeet yep

gah

I think you can still ask him to appoint someone else at his firm to work independently from him to minimise delays though. I think some conveyancers will do this.

we've not signed up with them yet.

OP Most 'deeds' are not in paper form today. So the vendor may very well not have a copy, or need a copy.If the property has been registered with the Land Registry, everything will be online, in public for all to see, at a very low charge. You - anyone - can buy copies for just a few pounds.

For England and Wales: https://www.gov.uk/search-property-information-land-registry

For Scotland: https://www.ros.gov.uk/services/search-property-information

The info there might answer your question.

If the property has not yet been registered, then it needs to be done so asap, by the vendor or their solicitors.

It is a conflict of interest and the firm shouldn’t act for you. It doesn’t necessarily mean they have confidential information which would be relevant to you. How far into the process were you? This should have been flagged right at the beginning.

Well yes that's what I thought - why wasn't it flagged at the beginning? It's a small firm. Anyway...we will look at instructing another and carrying on.

And on the other stuff, The issues we have aren't that we don't have titles - my bad - it's that we are missing copies of a Transfer and of a separate Deed both of which contain covenants the property is subject to (which we need to understand in relation to any extension work we can do), lack of evidence of consent to build the house currently on the property (which the title register specifically says is required), lack of right of way over the private road via which the property is accessed. The owner doesn't appear to have any information about any of it but our mortgage lender requires it. And so we might be at a stalemate.

Start of June. And bought two years before. Which is also a bit of a concern. Vendor went through planning for a big extension. Got rejected. Went through again and got accepted. Then we put on market again. Reasoning being about to become a parent and decided to move closer to wife's family. Not been lived in for years now.

*he not we