Conflict of interests in conveyancing

Under the SRA code of contract 2011 you cannot act( do work for ) a client if this causes a conflict of interest or has any risk of crossing over into the conflict of interest definition.

This is where your duty to act for 2 or more clients that are involved in the same deal and cause the advice or work to cause a conflict between them .

There can be exceptions explained later in this post.

As a conveyancing professional or solicitor, you might be approached by the buyer and seller to act for them in the same property transaction; in most cases this is not acceptable as conflict will arise in the conveyancing process, as when one client is buying a property from another some of the advice you might have to give the buyer or seller might not be agreeable to one of the parties and you are always supposed to have the best interests of your client in the process , this would mean that one of your clients best interests will not be looked after in favour of the others interest .

Chapter 3 of the SRA Code includes an indicative behaviour which states that you may not have achieved the outcomes that the code requires if you act “for a buyer (including a lessee) and seller (including a lessor) in a transaction relating to the transfer of land for value, the grant or assignment of a lease or some other interest in land for value”.

There can be an exception for circumstances where the 2 clients have a substantially common interest; in a property sale/purchase between 2 clients this is usually never possible even though they both a have a strong common interest in the property 1 is buying and 1 is selling it, some issue that arise from searches will be more concerning to the buyer than the seller as it will be the buyer that will have to deal with the issue to be able to purchase the property , it might even be the case that you have to recommend to buyer property has to many issues to make it a smooth transaction.

The indicative behaviours in the SRA Code suggest that you should only act for both the lender and the borrower on the grant of a mortgage if:
 • the mortgage is a standard mortgage (such as one provided in the normal course of the lender’s activities, where a significant part of the lender’s activities consists of lending and the mortgage is on standard terms) of property to be used as the borrower’s private residence
 • you're satisfied that it is reasonable and in the client’s best interests for you to act
 • the certificate of title required by the lender is in the form approved by the Law Society and UK Finance (formerly the Council of Mortgage Lenders)

Even if these criteria apply, you should still consider each case to make sure there’s no conflict of interest.