Real Estate (Knowledge) : Workshop 1 Guide Taking Instructions
Real Estate (Knowledge) : Workshop 1 Guide Taking Instructions
Real Estate (Knowledge) : Workshop 1 Guide Taking Instructions
Workshop 1
Guide
Taking Instructions
Context
This Workshop addresses one of the key tasks that a solicitor will perform in
transferring a freehold registered property from a seller to a buyer.
In this Workshop you will be taking instructions and identifying some key issues
about the client and the property, some of which (such as those relating to
professional conduct) may need to be addressed at the outset and some of which will
need to be followed up in later stages of the transaction.
A property lawyer needs to ask the right questions in the early stages of the
transaction because if important issues are missed, the client may end up with a
property that has a defective title, or cannot be used for the purposes the client
intended, or is not worth what the client paid for it.
Outcomes
1. Analyse a buyer client’s initial instructions and identify and follow up issues
arising at the instruction stage.
2. Identify and resolve issues of professional conduct that may arise when you are
instructed on a new commercial property transaction.
Workshop Tasks
4. Mortgage Fraud.
2. Read chapters 1, 2, 5, 6.2.1 to 6.2.5 (inclusive) and 8 and 9 of the Property Law
and Practice textbook.
4. Under your Workshop 1 materials on Elite, find and read the Law Society’s
practice note: Mortgage fraud.
Make notes on:
The nature of a mortgage fraud.
The various ways in which a mortgage fraud may be committed.
The warning signs to look out for when carrying out a property transaction.
The steps a firm can take to minimise the risk of becoming involved in a
mortgage fraud
4. This Guide.
1. Revise your answers to the Workshop Tasks in the light of the feedback you
received in the Workshop.
You are a trainee in the firm of Gibson & Weldon LLP (“G&W”). You are currently
sitting in the Real Estate Department and your supervising solicitor is Teresa
McKillop.
Arcadian wants G&W to act on its behalf in the purchase of Kenulf House in
Peterborough. On the following pages you will find a plan of the property, the
Memorandum of Sale from the agents marketing the property for the seller and a
photograph of the property.
Bearing in mind the nature of the client’s business, consider the plan, the
Memorandum of Sale and the photograph.
1. any issues arising out of these documents which you will need to follow
up; and
2. any further instructions you will need about the client, the property and/or
the transaction.
Blake’s Alley
Kenulf House
32 34-38 40
FLETTON STREET
Memorandum of Sale
Tenure Freehold
Price £1,175,000
Arcadian Investments Limited (“Arcadian”) and Winter Estates Limited (“Winter”) are
both existing clients of the firm. Teresa has acted for Arcadian on several purchases
of commercial property in the past and another solicitor in the department, Stephanie
Patterson, acts for Winter in the management of its leasehold properties, issuing
landlord’s licences to Winter’s tenants who want to assign their leases or carry out
alterations.
Both clients have asked whether Gibson & Weldon LLP (“G&W”) can act for them in
this transaction. Both clients are happy for the firm to act for the other.
1. Explain why both clients might want G&W to act for both parties in this
transaction.
3. If the firm decides not to act for both parties, which client should be told
to find legal representation elsewhere and why?
Assume that Gibson & Weldon LLP (“G&W”) will be acting for Arcadian Investments
Limited (“Arcadian”) and that the seller, Winter Estates Limited, will be separately
represented.
Arcadian has now requested that G&W also represent the lender, HRC Private Bank
Limited (“HRC”), in this transaction. The loan is for 75% of the value of the property.
1. With reference to the relevant SRA principles and paragraphs in the SRA
Codes of Conduct 2019, explain whether you think that G&W can act for
both Arcadian and HRC in this transaction.
WORKSHOP TASK 3
Several days later Arcadian contacts Teresa and instructs her that it understands
Winter is continuing to market the property as it is keen to sell quickly. The client is
very concerned that it will go through the effort and expense of preparing to
exchange contracts only to lose out to another buyer, they were unaware of, at the
last moment.
Your client is very concerned about the property being marketed and asks you to
seek a promise from Winter’s solicitors that their client will cease to market the
property immediately.