Lords to decide whether solicitors should ask about condition of clients marriagesHOME LOANS: attempt to overturn Court of Appeal decision because of practical difficultiesSolicitors will be required to make indelicate enquiries into the state of their clients marriages and will stop acting for small businessmen if a Court of Appeal ruling is not overturned, leading counsel representing the Law Society will tell the House of Lords next month.The Society has been granted leave to make representations in a test case UCB Home Loans Corporation Ltd v Moore & Others to which six other appeals have been conjoined.

Two other cases will be heard at the same time.The cases concern wives who say they signed charges giving loan security on their marital homes as a result of undue influence from their husbands.The wives claimed that lenders who tried to repossess their houses had constructive knowledge of their husbands undue influence.

But the Court of Appeal found that where the wives had been advised by solicitors this rebutted any argument that there was undue influence.Under the Court of Appeal ruling, solicitors have to satisfy themselves that wives do not enter transactions with undue influence from their husbands, and should advise wives about the financial positions of the businesses whose liabilities are to be secured by such charges.The Law Society is addressing the difficulties for the profession, not arguing points of law.

It is represented by Miriam Bartlett, a partner at Pinsent Curtis Biddle, and leading counsel Jonathan Sumption QC.Ms Bartlett said that if the ruling is not overturned, solicitors will abstain from acting for small businessmen many of whom use matrimonial homes as collateral to raise loan finance for their businesses for fear of the risks.Mr Sumption will also tell the Lords that the ruling requires solicitors to make indelicate inquiries of their clients marital arrangements.Berkshire firm Richard Wilson & Co is acting for the wife in the UCB case, with Surrey firm Copley Clark & Bennett acting for the lender.

The lawyers acting for the wives in the other cases are: Watford firm Collins, Birmingham firm EvansDerry Binnion, Keppe Shaw &Partners of south-west London, Bournemouth firm Baxter & Co, Reading-based Trevor Jenkin, and Waller & Company in London.For the lenders are London firms Fladgate Fielder, Salans Hertzfield Heilbronn HRK, Brook-Martin & Co, Tarlo Lyons, Underwood & Co, and Nicholson Graham & Jones, plus Bristol-based Osborne Clarke OWA.Jeremy Fleming