The headline is from the Gazette which has been told by Sir Bryan Carsberg, a former director of the Office of Fair Trading and the new president of the E-Homebuying Forum, that the future for the conveyancing market in England and Wales lies in partnerships between solicitors and estate agents to provide a one-stop shop for sellers.

A one-stop-shop for sellers clearly has business potential:

Richard Barnett, chairman of the Law Society’s conveyancing and land law committee and senior partner at volume conveyancing firm Barnetts, said: ‘A one-stop shop is a great idea. That’s what we already do, working in partnership with estate agents. The Legal Services Act will make the arrangements much easier.’

Who wouldn’t want to see the house-buying process streamlined? But pairing solicitors with estate agents to create an unbeatable team for the most hated professional title isn’t the only downside.

What happens when the estate agent’s solicitor sister acts for a buyer?

Anonymous: As an assistant solicitor I have been put under pressure not to draw the attention of the buyer ( in this case a cash buyer) a defect in the title to a property, not only by the estate agent but also by the residential partner of the firm (who had been yelled at by the manager of the estate agency) – I was told that the particular estate agency provided us [the firm] with a large amount of work and we could not afford to lose this work.

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Conflict? What conflict?