Registering mortgages is perhaps the most irritating part of any real estate transaction because the lender is particular about the transaction. Every lender will be idiosyncratic in its approach to transactions. Rapid and precise work on mortgage transactions is required.

Many lenders will ask counsel to act for the lender and the borrower, which raises practice management issues. The requirement that counsel act for both parties is acceptable, but counsel should be wary of accepting such mandates. If any conflict of interest is suspected or becomes apparent, counsel should refuse to act for both parties. Counsel should also obtain the borrower's clear, written consent to act for both sides in the transaction.

Solicitors must avoid conflicts of interest (rule 3.4-1).

a conflict of interest exists when there is a substantial risk that a lawyer's loyalty to or representation of a client would be materially and adversely affected by the lawyer's own interest or the lawyer's duties to another client, a former client, or a third person.

If a solicitor acts in any potential conflict of interest, the solicitor must inform all parties of the potential conflict and ask them to voluntarily accept the solicitor's mandate despite the potential conflict of interest (rule 3.4-2).

A solicitor may not act if a potential or actual conflict will, in the solicitor's view, adversely affect the solicitor's representation of or loyalty to the client (rule 3.4-2).