Cain: Serious failings
The Legal Ombudsman (LeO) directed London law firm Laytons to pay £49,000 in compensation to a client for failing to register her lease extension in the latest batch of six public interest decisions to be released.
LeO also named listed fee-share firm Keystone Law, directed to pay £20,000 in compensation to a client for failing to comply with court directions and deadlines.
Since the first release last July, LeO has issued 27 decisions naming the lawyers involved “where it is considered that it is in the public interest to do so”. They remain on its website for 12 months and form part of LeO’s efforts to share learning and insight from its casework.
The former Manchester office of Laytons, bought by professional services group ETL Global in 2021, was instructed by Ms A to complete and register a lease extension for her flat.
LeO said the law firm told her that the lease extension had completed but failed to respond to requisitions raised by HM Land Registry, leading to cancellation of her application to register the extension in February 2020.
Ms A only became aware of the issue the following year when she attempted to remortgage and was told the lease extension had not been registered.
“When the firm eventually became aware of the issue they did take action to rectify the issues for Ms A but did not explain to her that they would be charging her for the work that needed to be done.”
Ms A was unable to remortgage her property at the end of a fixed-rate term and had to make higher monthly repayments until the problems were rectified.
Laytons was directed to pay £49,000 in compensation, made up of £45,000 for financial loss, £2,000 for emotional distress and the rest as a partial fee refund.
Mrs A instructed Keystone Law Limited to pursue a claim against her local authority in 2018.
LeO found that, over an extended period, the firm had failed to comply with court directions, missed deadlines for serving witness evidence, and failed to respond to important applications made by the defendant local authority.
“As a result of the firm’s poor handling of her claim Mrs A had a costs order made against her and also incurred significant legal fees paying for her new solicitors to undertake the work necessary to get her claim back on track and undo the issues created by the firm’s poor service.”
Keystone stopped working for Mrs A in 2023, after she made a complaint.
LeO found that Keystone’s “repeated procedural failures and lack of communication constituted unreasonable service which exposed Mrs A to a serious risk of her claim being struck out and caused significant distress and inconvenience”.
Noting that the law firm “had already reimbursed a significant amount of money to Mrs A”, LeO directed it to pay £20,400 in compensation.
Meanwhile, Charles Fraser & Co – a Suffolk firm acquired by Birketts in 2021 – acted for a couple in the purchase of a property which the seller’s solicitor said came with the use of two dedicated parking spaces.
LeO said the law firm failed to check whether there was any legal right to park in the two spaces – and it turned out after completion that there was not.
LeO directed the firm to pay £25,000 to the clients to reflect “the likely loss in value of the property”, together with a payment of £500 for distress and inconvenience.
In the remaining three decisions, Heselwood & Grant Solicitors, which closed in 2021 and was based at Lytham St Annes, was directed by LeO to pay a client £23,000 she was liable to pay the opposing side in litigation, plus £1,000 for the stress and worry caused, having failed to explain clearly that she might be liable for the defendant’s legal fees if she discontinued her claim.
England & Derbyshire, based in Guildford, was ordered to pay a professional negligence client a total of £13,000 after entering into a standstill agreement with the wrong party, meaning the client lost their chance to sue.
Former Cheshire-based Allchurch Property Lawyers – shut down by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers in 2020 – acted on the purchase of an off‑plan property and was directed to pay over £6,000 to a client for failing to lodge a unilateral notice at the Land Registry, which could have protected his position after the developer went bust.
Chief Ombudsman Phil Cain commented: “These decisions point to serious failings in the delivery of legal services by the firms involved, where fundamental aspects of good practice have not been met.”