A solicitor of almost 50 years has been struck off after misleading his client for years about the status of their property registration.
Simon Langford, admitted in 1979, also repeatedly ignored the Solicitors Regulation Authority when it tried to investigate his conduct.
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal heard that Langford admitted all the allegations made against him, including dishonestly providing false information to the client about the registration of her property.
Langford told the tribunal that an end to the constant stress of running a small high street practice ‘would in truth be a blessing’.
Langford was the owner, manager and sole solicitor at Harrow firm Sayers Solicitors, specialising in conveyancing. He also held the roles of compliance officer and money laundering reporting officer.
He had been instructed in 2019 in a house purchase which included registering the purchase with HM Land Registry. The client noticed a year after completion that the property was not appearing on sold-property price websites and raised a concern. On as many as seven occasions over the next three years, Langford gave assurances about the status of the registration, saying that the application was ‘back in’ and then ‘lodged’.
The client learnt from the Land Registry in 2023 that no further application had in fact been filed since the original application by the firm was rejected in 2019. The client referred Langford to the SRA.
On another matter, Langford’s firm had undertaken to submit an application to register a lease extension within three days of a completion. Lawyers for the purchasers emailed 26 times and rang a further 22 times over nine months, but Langford continued not to register the lease extension.
When the SRA tried to investigate Langford, it required numerous attempts to contact him. Responding, Langford told the SRA: ‘In each case my actions or inactions fell beneath my usual standards and the professional standards which could have been expected of me… I deeply regret my actions/inactions which have led to these complaints.’
In mitigation, Langford explained that his business partner had died unexpectedly in 2017 and he had been under considerable pressure since then as he tried to keep the firm going. He would have wished to leave the profession without this stain upon his character, but he had got himself into difficulties from which he had been unable to extricate himself.
The tribunal said the harm caused to the reputation of the profession was high and the misconduct was deliberate, calculated and repeated.
Langford was struck off and ordered to pay £45,630 costs. The firm was intervened into by the SRA following the hearing last month.
