The voluntary framework that standardises residential conveyancing — what the Protocol requires, who must do what before exchange, and what happens when it is not followed.
A residential transaction runs more smoothly when both solicitors work from the same playbook, and the Protocol supplies it. This chapter begins with the Protocol's nature and status — the transactions it governs, its non-legislative character, and how it ranks against the SRA Standards and Regulations and lender requirements. It then works through the standardised forms and the contents of the contract pack for freehold and leasehold sales, before examining the seller's solicitor's duties when replying to enquiries and the buyer's solicitor's obligations when raising them, including the ban on evasive answers and scatter-gun questions. It closes with when departure from the Protocol is permitted and the consequences of breach, including its relevance to professional negligence claims.
