[1]Legal Ombudsman: £3.7m awarded to customers to put things right
The Legal Ombudsman (LeO) has reported a 41% increase in the number of complaints about conveyancing, driven by delays, poor communication and problems with post-completion registration.
More than 3,000 home-buyers complained to the LeO in the year to 31 March, a rise of 41% on the previous 12 months.
Residential conveyancing accounted for 36% of all new complaints in 2025/26 and almost three-quarters of the overall increase in demand for LeO seen in the year.
The ombudsman found poor service in 78% of the conveyancing cases, and ‘unreasonable complaint handling’ in more than half (53%).
Its newly published annual overview of complaints said about conveyancing: “The complaints accepted in 2025/26 suggest a pattern of service breakdowns rather than isolated technical errors during the retainer.
“The strongest themes related to consumers feeling uninformed, unsupported, or unclear about what was happening. This points to a need for clearer communication, more consistent progress updates, and earlier intervention when expectations begin to diverge.
“There were also signs that advice, documentation, costs, and scope of service are closely linked in consumers’ experience of dissatisfaction. Where consumers do not understand what advice is being given, why there are delays, or what they are being charged for, confidence in the overall service can quickly erode.”
With more than a million property sales in the UK each year, the ombudsman acknowledged that residential conveyancers often working under fixed fees, with high caseloads and limited control over “third-party timescales”.
But to improve performance, and reduce the number of complaints, the LeO advised law firms to focus on “improving transparency, setting expectations clearly at the outset, and ensuring service providers are explaining decisions and next steps in plain language throughout the retainer”.
As we reported earlier this month [2], the LeO received 14,259 new complaints last year, a jump of 36%.
Wills and probate (1,147 complaints) and personal injury (1,140) were the next main practice areas causing complaints, followed by family (825) and litigation (811).
Poor service was found in 72% of the complaints, leading to £3.7m being awarded “to put things right”.
The number of complaints about immigration and asylum complaints almost doubled to 211.
The annual review said: “One of the main drivers of was the process control around application handling, evidence and documentation.
“Many of these types of complaints stemmed from paperwork, forms, evidence or application content being missing, incorrect, late, untranslated or not properly submitted. This was closely linked to failures to execute agreed work and follow instructions as well as delay/failure to progress.”
The ombudsman said 70% of complaints relating to immigration cases were linked to poor service, and the annual review noted that immigration cases “are more likely to require an in-depth investigation”.
There was also a spike in the number of complaints about employment law – up 37% to 249 – but lawyers in this area scored better than average on the number of cases where poor service was found (59%) and where there was unreasonable complaints handling (38%).
Across all complaints, three issues stood out: poor communication (24%), delay and failure to progress (22%) and failure to advise (19%).
The report said: “Across most areas of law, complaints were linked to consumers feeling unclear about what was happening, why decisions were being made, or what they were being charged for.
“This points to a continued need for service providers to set clear expectations at the outset, provide regular updates, explain advice and next steps clearly, and address concerns before they escalate.”
The LeO said this showed “complaints were driven by too many service providers appearing not to be following their regulatory obligations with respect to complaint handling”.
The ombudsman’s new model complaints resolution procedure – which has been designed to give firms a new framework for resolving complaints when clients first raise them – should be published this week.