chain reaction

When the Solicitors Property Group made submissions to the government on conveyancing reform we suggested, among other things, that it should be a requirement where a chain came into being, that all solicitors/conveyancers in the chain were provided with the identity of each property in the chain, the seller's name and the seller's solicitor's name, address, telephone number and reference.

We also expressed the view that it should be proper for any solicitor/conveyancer in the chain to be able to speak to any other solicitor in the chain to ascertain the position of any particular transaction.

So far as we have been able to ascertain, that suggestion was ignored.

My firm is at present involved in what appears to be a at least a six-house chain.

We have endeavoured for some two weeks to exchange but one firm involved has been uncooperative.

As a result of four of the clients involved getting together after the delay of two weeks, it has transpired that the last property in the chain has a negative equity situation and it may well be that the whole chain will collapse at considerable expense to all concerned.

If the situation had been made clear at an early stage this might have been avoided.

It is worth noting, that among the other recommendations that the Solicitors Property Group made to the government was the need for each solicitor in a chain, before any work was done, to be satisfied that the financial situation of the seller was in order.

Had this recommendation been adopted, the solicitor for the seller with the negative equity would have known from the outset that there was a problem, and possibly could have obtained the consent of the lender to sell the negative equity.

The Solicitors Property Group remains unconvinced that the steps taken by the government to improve the conveyancing process are adequate or comprehensive.

The conveyancing pack about which so much has been written (and said) does not, so far as we can ascertain, address itself to the questions of the chain or indeed whether any part of the chain is in fact able to proceed.

Until the government addresses itself to the practicalities of domestic conveyancing these problems will continue.

Gerald Funnell, chairman, Solicitors Property Group