The Gazette 1973

report; (g) that the solicitor is satisfied from the examinations of the document specified in Part 5 of the schedule and from the investigation that the customer has a good marketable title. The Council having examined the forms of certificate and report were of the opinion that there is no objec- tion to the detailed form required by the Allied Irish group. However, paragraph (b) above which certifies that there are no leases, sub-leases, etc., other than those disclosed should be amended by a statement that this is based on information supplied by the client. There can be no assurance that a client would not have leased or sub-leased property without the knowledge of the solici- tor even where the original title deeds are in the solici- tor's possession. Subject to this the Council see no

objection to the form of solicitor's report and certificate of title used by the A.I.B. group or to the form used by the Bank of Ireland but members are warned as to the liability which they incur in making these reports. If a solicitor accepts responsibility for this work he is legally liable for any error or mistake which might fall under the heading of negligence. In one respect the form used by the Allied Irish Bank, although covering everything that is required by the Bank of Ireland report, is unique in that it draws the attention of solicitors to a number of matters upon which their advice is required. Each report contains a statement that from the investigation made into the title the customer has a good marketable title to the property. This is properly solicitors' work and should be properly remunerated by the banks requiring the reports. of his hands for collection purposes. The situation caused by delayed advances by buil- ding societies is obviously one which imposes great hardship on the client and imposes a duty on the soli- citor to warn the client of the danger of dealing with any building society which is slow in making advances after the necessary title formalities have been completed. Where a solicitor is aware that a particular society falls into this category it is recommended that a letter be sent to the client at an early stage of the transaction warning him of the possible consequences of dealing with the particular society unless there is a firm assur- ance that the money will be forthcoming as soon as the title has been cleared. It is also essential to warn the client if it is anticipated that the solicitor for the buil- ding society will take more than the normal period approximately one month to clear the title. A solicitor who omits to give such a warning to the client might conceivably be held responsible to the client, although this is a matter of opinion. The majority of the buil- ding societies co-operate fully with the profession and no difficulty arises and it is to deal with the case of any building society which is slow in clearing the title or in making the advance once the title has been cleared that this warning is issued to the profession. part of the contract. Having again considered the matter the Council wish to bring the matter a stage further. It is the con- sidered view of the Council that where a solicitor for a vendor issues more than one contract for the same property he should at least make it known to the soli- citors to whom these contracts are being issued that contracts in similar terms have or are being sent to other purchasers. If this is done the purchasers solicitors would then realise and could convey to their clients that the first contract returned signed would probably be the one accepted by the vendor. This recommen- dation is in addition to the statement in the last issue of the Society's Gazette and mentioned above.

DELAYED LOANS BY BUILDING SOCIETIES A member wrote to the Society stating that he acted for a client who had agreed to purchase a new house in a building estate near Dublin. To enable him to complete the purchase he was obtaining a loan from a Dublin building society.

The loan was approved on the usual conditions by the building society and in due course the title docu- ments were sent to the building society's solicitors. Ultimately after the outstanding points on title had been dealt with our member requested that the loan cheque be issued. At an early stage the client was anxious to go into possession of the house with bridging finance from the bank pending receipt of the loan cheque. Notwithstanding the various requests which had been made to make an appointment to complete the mortgage our member has been informed by the buil- ding society's solicitors that they cannot give any indi- cation when the loan cheque will be issued. The client has now received a letter from his bank manager indicating that he is being pressed by the directors for repayment of the amount advanced by way of a bridging loan. He has given the client a period of two weeks within which to clear up the outstanding overdraft and has indicated that if the matter has not been resolved by then the matter would be taken out GAZUMPING In the April issue of the Society's Gazette at page 82 a report appeared of a case in which a member sought advice as to the propriety of sending out several con- tracts on the instructions of the client to various poten- tial purchasers and getting them to sign the contracts after negotiating the maximum price with each pur- chaser and subsequently accepting the contract with the highest price and refusing the offers made by the remaining parties. This practice which has become known in England as gazumping was held to be unprofessional and was disapproved strongly by the Council. It was stated that in order to prevent this practice members should adopt the procedure of exchanging contracts so that neither party will be bound until the other party has signed his

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