Solicitor not responding? What to do, step by step

Step 1: one clear chase, then the phone

Before escalating, make one chase that is easy to answer:

• Send a single short email asking a specific question ("Have the searches come back, and what is the expected date for exchange?") rather than a general "any update?".
• If a routine email has had no reply for about a week, a chase is reasonable.
• If the chase goes unanswered for a few more days, phone. Emails are easy to bury; a call to the solicitor or their assistant often produces in two minutes what three emails did not.
• Keep it polite and factual: a clear, specific question is the quickest one to answer.

If a real deadline is at risk (a mortgage offer expiring, a limitation date, an exchange date), say so explicitly and ask for a response by a named date. That changes the priority of your file legitimately. If the silence is around a house purchase or sale, the conveyancing timescales guide covers what a normal timetable looks like and the specific questions that get a straight answer.

Step 2: escalate inside the firm

If chasing brings nothing, go over the individual's head, which is exactly what firms' own procedures are for:

• Ask to speak to the supervising partner or the head of the department. Say plainly: "I have had no substantive response since [date] and I would like someone to take ownership of this."
• Every SRA regulated firm must have a written complaints procedure, free to use, and if it has a website it must publish complaints information there (firms without one must make it available another way, such as on request). Look up who the complaints contact is; often a message to that person resolves things without a formal complaint.
• Put the history in one place: dates of each unanswered email and call. A one-paragraph timeline is more powerful than a page of frustration.

Step 3: the formal complaint, and then the Legal Ombudsman

Persistent failure to reply is poor service, and poor service is exactly what the complaints route exists for. The route is the same as for any other service problem, and the complaints guide walks through it in full:

• Make clear to the firm that you are making a complaint, preferably in writing, and keep a record. The firm has up to eight weeks to give a final response.
• If the final response does not satisfy you, or eight weeks pass in silence, take it to the Legal Ombudsman: free for consumers, and delays and unanswered communication are among the most common complaints it upholds. It can direct the firm to reduce fees or pay compensation.
• Watch the time limits: normally within one year of the problem (or of when you should reasonably have known about it) and within six months of the firm's final response; the six-month clock normally runs from a final response that properly signposted the Ombudsman.

Regulated firms handle complaints as a normal part of practice, and the procedure exists precisely so that concerns like this get looked at properly.

If you suspect something worse than workload

Silence is often workload, but not always, and two situations deserve a different response:

• The firm itself has gone quiet everywhere: phones dead, office closed, website down. Check the firm's status on the SRA register (you can look the firm up here free). If the SRA has intervened in a firm, it publishes that, and client files and money are taken into the SRA's control; the firm closed down guide explains what an intervention means for your case, files and money.
• Money is involved and answers stopped exactly when payment was due: re-verify who you are dealing with before sending anything. The legitimacy guide covers the five free checks, and if you are being told the firm's bank details have changed, stop and read the bank details changed guide first.

This guide is general information for England and Wales, not legal advice. Website findings are automated, come from public pages only, and are not a legal opinion.

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