CIVIL DIVISION
ON APPEAL FROM THE HIGH COURT
CHANCERY DIVISION
(Mr Justice Park)
The Strand London Thursday 18 April 2002 |
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B e f o r e :
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BELLO | Claimant/Applicant | |
and: | ||
DUNELTON PROPERTIES LTD | Defendant/Respondent |
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The Respondent did not appear and was not represented
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Crown Copyright ©
Thursday 18 April 2002
"(1) A contract for the sale or other disposition of an interest in land can only be made in writing and only by incorporating all the terms which the parties have expressly agreed in one document or, where contracts are exchanged, in each."
... ... ...
(5) This section does not apply in relation to -
(b) a contract made in the course of a public auction".
"The [seller] was not under any circumstances prepared to remain the Registered Proprietor of the land by for example our simply handing over the deeds. The reason for this is that there are obviously liabilities either under the terms of the landlord's covenants in the Underleases or in general legislation relating to the Property or indeed under the Head Lease and my client was not prepare to remain being shown in public documents in the form of the Land Registry Proprietorship Register as the owner. I was not prepare to draw up a Deed of Transfer on the purchasers' behalf as liability on the document would be unacceptable. Also, I do not consider it is permissible for the same conveyancing solicitor to represent both parties to a transaction (although in the absence of any conflict of interest the same solicitor could act for both parties in a small conveyancing transaction where the consideration is below £10,000) but in my experience there is on an auction sale potential for conflict and I did not consider that we could act for the purchaser even if we had been asked to do so."