The Supreme Court has ruled that negligent conveyancers shouldn’t be able to avoid liability because it later emerges that their client was engaged in mortgage fraud.
The Court revealed that if a conveyancer did this it “would be a disincentive to the diligent performance by solicitors of their duties.”
Lord Lloyd Jones said:
“[Conveyancing solicitors] should perform their duties to their clients diligently and without negligence and that, in the event of a negligent breach of duty, those who use their services should be entitled to seek a civil remedy for the loss they have suffered.”
He added:
“To permit solicitors to escape liability for negligence in the conduct of their client’s affairs when they discover after the event that a misrepresentation was made to a mortgagee would run entirely counter to these policies.”
This article first appeared in Legal Futures.
