Conveyancing is where professional conduct rules meet real money, real pressure, and clients who all want different things. As a solicitor you're constantly balancing duties — to your client, to the other side, to lenders, and to the standards of your profession. Knowing where these duties sit, and what to do when they pull against each other, is what keeps a transaction clean and keeps you out of trouble.
This lesson takes you through the key conduct situations you'll meet in practice and shows you how to handle each one.
- Duty Not to Mislead — what you can and can't say to the other side, and why silence and half-truths can still mislead.
- Contract Races — when a seller invites buyers to compete, and how to handle questions about it honestly.
- Undertakings — the binding promises solicitors make, and the serious consequences of breaking one.
- Confidentiality and Conflicts of Interest — your duties to current and former clients, and the two types of conflict the rules recognise.
- Acting for Multiple Parties — when you can act for both sides, joint buyers, or borrower and lender — and when you can't.
- Duties to the Lender — what you must report, the certificate of title, and how to handle mortgage funds.
- Advising a Non-Borrowing Co-Owner — giving independent advice so consent to a mortgage genuinely holds up.