A managing partner who blamed a junior colleague for multiple breaches of conveyancing protocol in a residential property transaction has been fined £40,000 and ordered to pay costs of £28,000, following a hearing at the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.
The tribunal found that the conduct of Ajaz Ali, admitted to the Roll in 2010, had been reckless after he failed to undertake adequate enquiries in relation to the sale of a residential property, failed to adequately advise his clients of the risks and consequences of the sale, and failed to obtain consent to give instructions.
Ali, who was also the compliance officer for legal practice (COLP) and compliance officer for finance and administration (COFA), accepted that his supervision of junior solicitor Simon Plant, who had a background in conveyancing, had fallen below the required standard. However, he told the tribunal that Plant – newly qualified at the time of the transaction – was to blame for the misconduct and should incur the majority of any financial penalty.
The case centred around the sale of a residential property, in which Client A and Client B appeared to have entered into an agreement with a neighbour’s son for him to purchase the house for less than it was worth. Client A, who was suffering from a serious illness, and Client B would continue to live in the property after the sale.
The transaction was referred to Ali by a local estate agent contacted by the purchaser. Ali then assigned the case to Plant, who raised concerns that the purchaser was taking advantage of the clients due to their lack of capacity. However, the transaction proceeded and contracts were exchanged in 2018 for the sale of the property at a price of £52,000.
Following the death of Client A, the purchaser began to make changes to the property that made Client B’s life uncomfortable and difficult, to the extent that he was moved into temporary accommodation with the support of the local council.
In bringing a case against both Ali and Plant, the Solicitors Regulation Authority said they had failed to act in the best interests of their clients in their conduct of the conveyance of the property, failed to acknowledge or act on the unusual features and/or red flags of the sale in that it was significantly undervalued, was not carried out on the open market and the clients were vulnerable due to their age and ill health.
The clients and the property were also at a significant distance from the firm, with which they had no prior connection. Neither client met Plant or Ali at any time during the transaction, and Client B said he had not given permission for Client A to instruct Ali on his behalf.
In the judgment, the SDT noted:
“…given his roles and experience, Mr Ali was the person who was primarily responsible for the matter. He was an experienced conveyancing solicitor who had abrogated his responsibility for the matter to a junior solicitor notwithstanding the concern he expressed.
“He had caused significant harm to his clients who had suffered a significant financial loss, the property having been sold for approximately 20% of its value. He had failed to consider accommodation post-sale for his clients. Ultimately, Client B was forced to leave his home as a result of Mr Ali’s failure. He had also caused harm to the reputation of the profession. He knew that the property was being sold at an undervalue. He had concerns about coercion. He knew that those clients were vulnerable. Accordingly, such harm was foreseeable.”
As the managing partner, COLP and COFA, the tribunal found that Ali bore primary responsibility for the failures. Assessing his conduct as ‘very serious’, a fine of £40,000 was imposed to take into account the level of culpability, misconduct and significant harm that had been caused. Plant was fined £7,500.
