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This section explains how you can make a complaint about a solicitor or licensed conveyancer. It covers complaints about issues to do with buying or selling your home, as well as other issues for which you may have employed a solicitor. 

Properties are expensive, so if you have suffered financial loss, it may be a lot of money. If you think you have a claim for financial loss, you should get advice from a different solicitor before making a complaint. But a complaint is often the best way of dealing with, for example, rudeness or lack of consideration.

Complaining to the solicitor's client

The person or organisation that the solicitor or conveyancer is working for is called the ‘client’. It is worth complaining to the client if:

• the transaction has not yet been completed, and
• the complaint is about behaviour that might make the transaction slower or more difficult, for example, rudeness, inefficiency or lack of consideration.

It is not worth complaining to the client if:

• the transaction has been completed, or
• the complaint is about behaviour that will not make the make the transaction slower or more difficult.

Complain by letter. The client may investigate your complaint. But you can’t make the client do anything.

Complaining to the solicitor or conveyancer

Any solicitor or conveyancer must have a complaints procedure. Get information from the solicitor’s or conveyancer’s website or ask at their office. They must tell you about it if you ask. Please see the section on how to make a complaint for more information.

If a solicitor does not have a complaints procedure or will not tell you about it, contact the Legal Complaints Service (LCS), which will make sure that your complaint is properly dealt with by the solicitor. LCS can also advise you how to complain. See below for more information.

If a licensed conveyancer does not have a complaints procedure or will not tell you about it, contact the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC), which will make sure that your complaint is properly dealt with by the conveyancer. Please see below for more information.

If at the end of the complaints procedure, you are not happy with the result or if the solicitor or conveyancer has failed to reply to your complaint letter, you can:

• complain about a solicitor to the LCS, or about a licensed conveyancer to the CLC (see below)
  
• use alternative dispute resolution
• go to court.

If your only complaint is about the amount of a solicitor’s bill, there is a different procedure. You must usually ask the solicitor to apply for a ‘remuneration certificate’ within 1 month of receiving the bill. Sometimes different rules apply. Your first step should usually be to discuss the problem with your solicitor, but if s/he is unhelpful, get advice from Citizen’s Advice or an impartial solicitor.

Complaining to the Legal Complaints Service

You can complain about your solicitor to the Legal Complaints Service (LCS). ‘Your solicitor’ is a solicitor who is advising you or doing legal work for you, and includes anyone employed by your solicitor.

You can only complain after you have been through your solicitor’s own complaints procedure, and if you are not satisfied with the result, or if you have written to your solicitor to complain and they have not replied within 28 days.

LCS can deal with a complaint about your solicitor’s bill or about poor service, such as:

• not doing what you instructed her/him to do
• involving you in unreasonable delays
• giving inaccurate or incomplete information
• failing to reply to your telephone calls and letters or keep you informed about what is going on
• failing to give you enough information about charges.

LCS can also deal with a complaint about professional misconduct by your solicitor, such as:

• keeping your money
• working for you where your interests conflict with the interests of another client
• disclosing confidential information about you without your consent
• discriminating against you on the basis of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability or age.

LCS can:

• make your solicitor do something, for example let you have your file, or apologise
• limit the amount of your solicitor’s bill
• report your solicitor to the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority (see below)
  
• make your solicitor pay you compensation.

LCS is able to order a solicitor to pay you compensation, but this is limited to £15,000. It can order compensation for:

• Distress and inconvenience. This is usually a relatively small sum (the average is £450) to compensate you for your time, stress and worry.
• Financial loss. This must be a known amount. The LCS cannot order a payment of money where you do not know how much you have lost. For example, if your case was lost because of something that your solicitor did not do, you might have lost the case anyway, so the LCS cannot order compensation.

If you do not know what your loss is, or if it is more than £15,000, you may be able to use alternative dispute resolution (ADR) or go to court.

You must complain to the LCS within certain time limits:

• if you are complaining about conduct, within six months of that conduct.

• if you are complaining about poor service, six months from the end of the work your solicitor did for you, or six months from your solicitor’s final response to your complaint, and

Complain by letter. Please see the section on how to make a complaint for tips on how to put your complaint together.

If you are not happy with the outcome of your complaint, you can take your complaint to the Legal Services Ombudsman (see below), or you may be able to use alternative dispute resolution (ADR) or go to court. But if you have accepted an offer or decision about your complaint, then you cannot take it any further.

Complaining to the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC)

You can complain about a licensed conveyancer to the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC).

CLC can deal with a complaint about professional misconduct, or if you were the client, the service provided. If your complaint involves a claim for negligence, CLC will pass the complaint to the licensed conveyancer’s insurers before dealing with it.

If you were the client, CLC can make the licensed conveyancer:

• pay you compensation, limited to £5,000
• repay you some or all of the fees charged
• put an error right.

Even if you were not the client, CLC can discipline the licensed conveyancer, for example by a fine, suspension or withdrawal of licence.

Complain using the CLC’s complaint form, available from their office or website.

If at the end of the complaint to the CLC, you are not happy with the result, you can take your complaint to the Legal Services Ombudsman (see below), or you may be able to use alternative dispute resolution (ADR) or go to court. But if you have agreed to an offer or decision about your complaint, then you cannot take it any further.

Complaining to the Legal Services Ombudsman (LSO)

If you are not satisfied with a decision made by the Legal Complaints Service (LCS) or Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) about your complaint, you can ask the Legal Services Ombudsman (LSO) to review it.

Apply on the LSO website, or use a form, which you can get by telephoning or writing to LSO. You must give:

• reasons why you are dissatisfied with the handling of your complaint and/or the decision reached
• the reference number
• the name of the solicitor or licensed conveyancer
• a copy of LCS’s or CLC’s final decision letter.

The LSO will consider the way that LCS or CLC investigated your complaint. If the LSO is not satisfied, it can:

• make LCS or CLC re-investigate your complaint
• make a formal criticism of LCS or CLC
• make LCS or CLC pay you compensation for any distress or inconvenience caused by LCS or CLC.

You must ask the LSO to review your complaint within 3 months of receiving the decision from the Legal Complaints Service or Council for Licensed Conveyancers. It is only possible for the LSO to consider complaints after this deadline in special circumstances. 

Complaining to the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority (SRA)

You can complain about any solicitor or anyone employed by the solicitor to the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority (SRA).

You should usually complain to the solicitor first. But in a very serious case or where your complaint is not dealt with to your satisfaction, you can complain to the SRA.

The SRA investigates complaints about professional misconduct by a solicitor, for example:

• lying to you or others
• taking unfair advantage of you
• holding onto money that belongs to you
• breaking an undertaking given to you or your solicitor
• discriminating against you on the basis of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability or age.

The SRA can investigate, and may then prosecute, the solicitor. It may take steps only against an individual solicitor, or against a whole firm of solicitors. If found guilty, the solicitor can be punished, for example by being fined, being suspended, or being struck off (so s/he can no longer be a solicitor).

The SRA does not make a solicitor pay you compensation. If you want compensation, you need to use another method.

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