Dual representation off the table for conveyancing transactions

The Law Gazette recently reported that the idea of dual representation is now off the table following a report by the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government.

 Last year, the idea of a single conveyancer acting for both the seller and buyer in a transaction was put forward by the ministry in the hope that it would speed up the conveyancing process.    The research published last year, which prompted the idea of a reform, showed that:

• 47% of people who bought a property in the past two years blamed the seller’s solicitor for delays.
• 58% of sellers blamed the buyer’s solicitor.
• 32% of sellers were dissatisfied with the other party’s legal representative.  

The government’s idea behind the proposal was to not only make the process of buying and selling homes quicker, but also cheaper and less stressful.   Currently, the SRA rules allow a conveyancer to act for both the buyer and seller in a conveyancing transaction, but only if there is not a conflict or a significant risk of a conflict between the interests of the clients. In a normal property transaction, there will usually be a high risk of a conflict arising at some point and, as such, lawyers rarely act for both a buyer and seller. The responses to the proposal indicated that whilst some believed that using a single conveyancer would speed up the process, this advantage would not outweigh the potential conflict of interests which may arise in the process. Although any potential conflicts could be mitigated through the use of “Chinese walls” or physical separations between buyers’ and seller’s legal representatives within the same firm, the overall consensus was that having entirely separate representation would best protect clients’ interests. In addition, responses highlighted concerns that the introduction of dual representation could lead to an increase in fraud and a reduction in consumer confidence.  The conclusion was that, although dual representation is not a likely avenue, the ministry will be looking into how they can work with the conveyancing industry to enable better communications between conveyancers and thereby an improved service to clients.