Why we cannot have contact with a person who is represented by another solicitor in a conveyancing transaction.

We cannot have contact with a person who is represented by another solicitor in a conveyancing transaction.

Every now and again, someone will contact us who we are not acting for in a conveyancing transaction and who already has an appointed solicitor who is acting on their behalf in that transaction.

The reason for their contact is that we are working on behalf of our client in the other half of the transaction.

Example

For example, our client A is selling their house to B.

B has their own solicitor but calls us for information instead of contacting the solicitor they have appointed to act on their behalf.

The rules that govern the professional behaviour and standards of solicitors stop us from having any contact with B and we cannot respond to any queries they raise or enter into communication with them.

There are many reasons for this, the most important being that if we do have contact, we may put ourselves in a position of professional conflict and would have to stop acting for our own client (A). In a well-progressed case this may cause a whole chain of buyers and sellers to collapse and even early in a transaction would cause inconvenience and expense to our client (A).

It may also mean that we breach our professional rules and regulation.

Our rules state that;

• We do not act or communicate with another person in a matter where that person has an interest adverse to the interest of a current or former client that we act for or have acted for and where we hold confidential information which is material to that matter.
• That we have a duty of confidentiality to our current and former clients and that we must not disclose confidential information.
• That we must consider complaints (only) from our clients. A client is someone we are currently acting for or have acted for before within the scheme rules set by our Regulator (Solicitors Regulation Authority) and the Legal Ombudsman. Therefore, we do not need to consider a complaint from any person who is not our client.

If you are buying or selling a property where we are the Solicitors acting on the other side of the transaction the correct person to contact is the solicitor you have appointed to act for you. Please do not contact us as we cannot enter into communication with you.