Conveyancing For Both Parties Can Be Damaging

There is repeated proof that a solicitor who aims to work with both the buying and selling parties in a conveyancing agreement, can be taking an incredibly foolhardy risk in doing so.

Such measures from the solicitors are increasingly becoming a practice that needs tighter laws to keep people from attempting it.

Some of the most recent written examples of the dangers to date are recorded in real estate rebel, Neil Jenman's book, ‘DON'T SIGN ANYTHING!'.

In the book Mr Jenman speaks twice about the Brisbane solicitor Mr Richard Ebbott.

Mr Jenman talks in the book of how Mr Richard Ebbott took on conveyancing duties for two Sydney clients who went on to lose more than $50,000 each, after buying two overpriced Brisbane townhouses.

He goes on to talk of how Mr Ebbott, four year after this major loss, acted for Victorians Murray and Helen Casey in the same role, who had been pushed into signing for a Gold Coast unit overpriced by $70,000.

The buyers want out…

After discovering the distressing truth Helen Casey called Mr Ebbott to cancel. He said: "You have signed and you cannot pull out and if you do you will be sued by the property owner."

Scarily enough, three years after that, Mr Ebbott told Sydney clients John and Barbara Hamilton, more or less the same thing after they told him they wanted to get out of their overpriced contracts.

Speaking to the Hamilton's, he said: "You both signed the contracts for the purchase of the two properties you did sign freely and voluntarily and without any pressure from anyone."

Mr Ebbott was brought to justice momentarily when he pleaded guilty to professional misconduct charges laid by the Queensland Law Society in the Solicitors Complaints Tribunal, (SCT).

Such charges arose due to a large number of conveyancing matters from 2001 where he acted for the sellers and their buyers. He was fined by the SCT around $25,000 with costs, who took into account his plea of guilt, his professed remorse and his since-altered practice methods.

A change of mind and heart

Mr Ebbott has, as far as we know, never again acted for both parties in conveyancing matters, and hopefully his antics will put others off taking on similar methods.

In Mr Ebbott's lucrative transactions, he acted with the help of a marketing agent who had referred potential buyers to him, which had left him with two lots of professional costs and resulted in the agent collecting substantial commissions from the settlement proceeds.

The SCT found proof that the prices of purchase for the properties had been pushed up in order to cover this middleman's marketing conditions.

Such commissions had been told of only to the sellers and not to the buyers. In most transactions made, the payments were made as well as the regular commissions paid to the selling agents.

The marketing commissions ranged from $10,450.00 to more than $30,000.00. On one sale the marketeer's commission was one third of the purchase price, a substantial amount.

If you are about to buy or sell your property, find the help you need at Only Conveyancing.