"Solicitor Retained" and "Solicitor Supervised"

A purchaser sought our assistance because his conveyancer had acted contrary to his interests. The commission estate agent through whom the purchaser had bought his property had made a mistake by setting a specific settlement date, when the property had been purchased "off the plan ". Rather than bring the mistake to the purchaser's attention, and negotiate an out come that would suit both the purchaser and the vendor, the commission estate agent "covered" his mistake by approaching the purchaser's conveyancer (the commission estate agent had "referred" the purchaser to the conveyancer in the first place).

The conveyancer assisted the commission estate agent by having the purchaser sign a fresh Contract, which left the settlement date open, pending registration of the plan of subdivision . This meant that the purchaser had to move out of his existing home (which had been sold, with settlement taking place within a few weeks), and rent another property until the new property was available for settlement .

Understandably, when the purchaser realised the consequences of his signing the new Contract, he felt tricked and betrayed. He then decided to contact the "supervising solicitor" to complain about the conveyancer , and to have the matter rectified.

The purchaser was most distressed when the "supervising solicitor" explained to him that he would not assist, that he was the conveyancer's lawyer, and that the conveyancer denied any negligence and would defend any action brought by the purchaser.

The purchaser described his feelings:

"I feel gutted. Everyone that I thought I could trust has turned against me. It turns out that they are now my enemies, but they know everything about me, and they have control of all of my documents, letters and any other things I'll need as evidence."