Where an option agreement provides for exercise by notice to a party's solicitor/conveyancer, and the attached contract for sale names a specific solicitor/conveyancer and defines 'solicitor' as the person named in the contract or in a notice served by the party, the reference to 'solicitor/conveyancer' in the notice clause means the person so named, not the person retained at the time of service. Pratt v Hawkins (No 2) is confined to the 1988 standard form of contract which lacked the defined terms 'Depositholder' and 'Solicitor' found in the 2005 edition. A grantor cannot defeat an option by the unilateral and uncommunicated act of withdrawing the conveyancer's instructions. The Court also confirmed its power to set off costs owed by a vendor against the purchase price in specific performance proceedings.
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