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?

I do really love the property but yes I don't trust the vendor. But I can't work out if the property buying is just complex (many other neighbours have just built extensions and renovated and all is fine) or there is something really wrong. But, this conflict of interest thing, is apparently normal so I think my worries about that are not necessary.

If the vendor was a cash buyer, they could have decided to buy regardless of the missing documents and rights, so they might never turn up.

I'm not that anxious really (not now medicated). I just really want this purchase to happen as we've been looking for such a long time and this could be a beautiful home. It's in a great location. I know house buying is rarely straightforward. It's just I don't have much to compare against and it all seems so complicated. @MinnieMountain that's exactly right. We can't though due to needing mortgage.

There we go.. he knows something. Maybe he cocked up first time.

What a snide comment

Its completely normal to feel anxious about buying a house especially when something happens that you don't understand.

It sounds like you won't get the paperwork you need for your mortgage anyway, OP. I don't know anything about properties but your worries sound reasonable. Good luck!

Yes, it sounds like the solicitor, when acting for the seller, did not ensure all the necessary paperwork was in place, or maybe even advised the seller not to proceed.
The conflict means they should not act for you.
You've found another solicitor, if they are local ask if they've any experience of dealing with that particular estate, it may be that they've come acr these particular issues before.
By the way, if the seller had permission to extend refused previously, they must be able to contact the person( original developer?) who benefits from the covenants in question. So it should be quite easy to obtain a copy of the missing documents from them. Or ask neighbours if they have any relevant paperwork.

@DelphiniumBlue this is where it gets tricky as, because we don't have all documents, we're not entirely sure who benefits from the covenants yet. They were put in place aeons ago and it's all in olde worlde language and bits sold off here there and everywhere to different estates over the years. Can't see anything on the council planning about issues related to covenants, and it then the following planning put forward was accepted, so whether something happened post acceptance and the estate requested a heap of money, who knows? We will def go speak with the neighbours. I just wish the solicitors could be open and say 'yes a conflict of interest' and it's just because we acted - nothing dodgy. But I know they can't do that.

Agreed @OnRose

There's another thread on here where the sellers didn't get approval for a driveway and now the buyers have been told by council they're putting a parking bay in front of their driveway. The off-street parking in London was a priority for the buyers.

Be as anxious as you need to be OP to get things checked properly!

We keep the paper deeds for this property. The property is also registered with land registry so the paper documents are more a historical record than legal requirement.

@mogernator Has the 2nd solicitor confirmed that the 'conflict of interests' does not sound correct if it is a straight forward purchase and that there's no inherent reason why a solicitor shouldn't act in this way? That's the way his response reads to me and that he consulted with a colleague because it wasn't something he has had an issue with previously?

Don't be blinded by this being the ideal property, if you have an issue with access rights then it isn't perfect and it is sounding to me like your original solicitor knows something- disclosure would be a conflict of the original purchase not disclosing would be not acting in your best interests.

they may know information about the property which would compromise their position.

This is the part that would concern me most.

Fingers crossed for the OP that everything turns out OK.
My experience of house buying is limited as we’ve only ever bought one but I know from friends and family that there are often issues that arise that end up being easily sorted.
I saw that someone who posted earlier referred to the Land Registry and
hope I’m not muddying the waters here by mentioning a family member who bought a new build property in the early 70’s and only recently discovered that it had never been registered. Apparently back then this wasn’t a legal requirement.
They have never moved and have no intention of doing so unless it becomes an absolute necessity, but they became aware that unregistered properties are more difficult (but not impossible) to sell, and in attempt to make things easier for relatives left behind they got the forms to register the property themselves
One look at them was enough to make them realise it was not something they could do so they handed over all the necessary documents to Solicitors at a fairly hefty cost. The solicitors did their bit very quickly but in confirming the submission to the Land Registry they made clear that there was a huge backlog of work due to lockdown and it was unlikely that anything would be heard for at least 18 months.
They live on a small estate built by the same company and their house is the only one that has never changed hands. Assuming that none of the houses were registered when first built it seems likely that properties were included on the register as and when sales took place. Years ago it will have not delayed things much but currently it could slow the purchase time considerably if the property is one of those never registered.

@Devilinthedeet
C'mon, you know exactly what you were doing with that comment.

Yes, planning permission and restrictive covenant compliance are 2 entirely different things, and the local authorities only deal with planning permission .
Id be more concerned about the access issue, you need evidence of that.

thanks all. I think we will proceed with another solicitor, and proceed with caution, and do some digging ourselves. I very much hope it can be rectified.

Glad to know you've found someone else to act for you.

I am selling a house . The buyers are using the same solicitor that I used to buy the house five years ago.

Both sets of solicitors are aware of this and no one has said it is a conflict of interests

We will def go speak with the neighbours. What will you ask? Be careful, they could be friends and i would be a bit 🤔 if I discovered my buyer was bothering neighbours to dig up info on me

Did you pick up the phone to the solicitor and say “I understand there’s a conflict of interest and you can’t act for us. Unsurprisingly though - I am a little alarmed and so would really appreciate if you could provide a little more detail”