Conveyancing progress texts from offer to completion

The Legal Ombudsman accepted 3,039 complaints about residential conveyancing in 2025/26, 36% of everything it took on and 41% more than the year before. Its own summary of why reads like a brief for conveyancing progress texts: the strongest themes "related to consumers feeling uninformed, unsupported, or unclear about what was happening", which "points to a need for clearer communication, more consistent progress updates, and earlier intervention when expectations begin to diverge".

That's the case for a short text at each stage of a sale or purchase, from the offer being accepted to the day the Land Registry finishes its part. Each one takes a conveyancer a few seconds and heads off an "any news?" call, and the thread becomes a dated record of what the client was told.

What the Ombudsman's figures show

The Legal Ombudsman (LeO) received 14,259 new complaints in 2025/26, 37% more than in 2024/25, and accepted 8,412. Residential conveyancing was the largest area of law by some distance (wills and probate came next with 1,147), and it accounted for 886 of the 1,209 extra complaints LeO accepted compared with the year before. Where LeO investigated, it found evidence of poor service in 78% of conveyancing complaints.

Across all areas of law, communication and delay together made up 46% of the complaint types people raised.

LeO's spotlight on residential conveyancing goes further, and it's worth reading in full before setting up updates. It says complaints "can arise because a consumer has not received an update, frequently because there is nothing to update them on. However, a consumer does not know that unless they are told." It also says short, predictable updates, "even when there is nothing new to report", can "improve consumer satisfaction, prevent escalation and reduce the volume of incoming queries over time". And it suggests "reasonably chasing third-party information and telling consumers when you've done so".

One of its case studies is a buyer who said he felt "kept in the dark" by a firm whose communication was "electronic and via an app". The firm offered £300, which LeO judged in line with what it would have directed, and its lesson from the case was that firms "should make clear their approach to managing transactions and communications at the outset of a retainer".

Why the waiting feels so long

MHCLG's home buying and selling roadmap, updated on 19 June 2026, puts the length of the process plainly: "Once an offer is accepted, it takes around 120 days on average to complete", around 60% longer than in 2007, and "around one in 3 transactions fall through". It also says buyers and sellers "often can't see which elements of their transaction have been progressed, what remains outstanding, or who is responsible for delays", and that professionals "spend time chasing updates" when they'd rather be moving cases on.

The volume is steady enough to plan for. HMRC counted 1,144,580 residential transactions in the UK in the year to March 2026, every one with at least one conveyancer on each side. Then, after completion, there's the wait nobody warns clients about. HM Land Registry's processing times page, updated on 30 October 2026, says just over 30% of applications to update the register are automated and done in minutes, but "over half of the remaining applications to update the register, such as changing a name or transferring a property title, take 19 weeks to complete, with most completed in about 9 months".

The page adds that "the legal interests of the applicant are protected from the moment HM Land Registry receives the application, regardless of how long it then takes to complete". That's worth telling a client in one sentence, because otherwise a buyer who checks the register three months after moving in and still sees the seller's name will ring you.

What the SRA already asks for

A firm that publishes residential conveyancing services has already written the skeleton of its progress texts. Rule 1 of the SRA Transparency Rules requires cost information that includes "the key stages of the matter and likely timescales for each stage". The SRA Code of Conduct for Solicitors, at paragraph 8.6, says "you give clients information in a way they can understand" and make sure they can make informed decisions about "how their matter will be handled". A text at each key stage, matching the stages on the firm's own website, is a plain way of doing both.

Conveyancing progress texts, stage by stage

Written for a fictional firm, Marsden Law, acting for a buyer. Each one is about the client's own matter, so these are service messages; the ICO lists administrative and customer service messages as outside direct marketing.

Instruction and ID:

Marsden Law: thanks for instructing us on your purchase of 5 Fern Way. Your case handler is Priya. Next step: we'll send your ID check link by email today.

Searches ordered:

Marsden Law: we've ordered your local authority, water and environmental searches for 5 Fern Way. We'll text you when they're back.

The weekly "no news" update, which is the one LeO is talking about:

Marsden Law: no change this week on 5 Fern Way. We're still waiting for the seller's solicitor to answer our enquiries and chased them on Tuesday. Next update Fri 20 Nov.

Mortgage offer:

Marsden Law: your mortgage offer for 5 Fern Way has arrived and we're checking the conditions. Nothing for you to do yet.

Ready to sign:

Marsden Law: your contract and transfer for 5 Fern Way are ready to sign. They're in your email with instructions. Please call Priya if anything's unclear.

Exchange and the completion date, which is the text a client will screenshot and send to their removals firm (our post on moving day texts covers the other side of that):

Marsden Law: contracts exchanged on 5 Fern Way. Completion is set for Fri 11 Dec. We'll text you on the day as soon as the money has reached the seller's solicitor.

Completion:

Marsden Law: completion has happened on 5 Fern Way. The agent can release your keys now. Congratulations!

And registration, months later:

Marsden Law: HM Land Registry has finished registering you as owner of 5 Fern Way. Your updated title is in your email. That's the end of the matter on our side.

When the hold-up is someone else's

Most of the waiting in a purchase is on other people: the seller's solicitor, a search provider, a lender, a managing agent, the Land Registry. LeO's spotlight on third-party delays says that "in general, any periods of delay caused by a party other than the service provider are not considered to be the fault of the service provider", but it looks at the firm's communication all the same. Firms "should provide customers with clear information when they are waiting for input from a third party", should give "an idea of the likely length of delay" where they can (and say so where they can't), and should "keep customers informed of any changes in likely timescales".

That's a text with three parts: who you're waiting on, what you've done about it, and when the client will next hear from you.

Marsden Law: we're still waiting on the managing agent's leasehold pack for 5 Fern Way. We chased them today. They haven't given a date yet, so we'll update you on Mon 23 Nov either way.

A chain problem is different, and it belongs on the phone first. A text afterwards confirming what was said ("as discussed, the sale above yours has fallen through and we're waiting to hear if your seller will proceed") gives the client something to show their partner and their broker.

None of these texts carries bank details or asks the client to pay anything, on purpose. Payment diversion fraud targets exactly this kind of transaction, and our post on why solicitors say bank details never change by email sets out the figures and the SRA's advice. A line in the first text ("we will never send bank details by text or email") is easy to add, and the progress texts themselves should only ever point to things the client already knows about.

Setting it up in a firm

Most conveyancing firms run on case management software that records each stage. If it can call an API, the cleanest set-up is to send a text when a stage is ticked off: POST /messages with the client's mobile and the wording for that stage, and the matter number in client_ref so any reply or delivery failure comes back to the right file through the webhooks. An Idempotency-Key built from the matter number and the stage stops a stage being texted twice if someone ticks and unticks it.

The weekly update doesn't need software. On CaptiFi Connect a text can be scheduled, so a case handler can set next Friday's update when they send this week's, and email to SMS lets them send from Outlook by emailing the client's number at our domain from a verified address. Texts sent that way go from a UK mobile number, so clients can reply, and replies land in a two-way inbox the whole team can see (with an optional copy by email). If you send from your firm's name as a registered sender ID, people can't reply to it, which suits the completion text but not the weekly update.

Two points of care. A text appears on a phone's lock screen, so keep it to the property's street address and the stage, with anything personal or financial in the email or portal it points to. And because criminals can send texts that appear under a firm's name, our post on sender ID spoofing is worth a read before you choose how your texts are labelled.

Common questions

How long does conveyancing take in England?

MHCLG's home buying and selling roadmap says it takes around 120 days on average to complete once an offer is accepted. Searches, mortgage offers and the rest of the chain all affect the timing, and the roadmap says around one in 3 transactions fall through.

Why can't my conveyancer give me an update?

Often there's nothing new because the firm is waiting on someone else, such as the other side's solicitor or a search provider. The Legal Ombudsman recommends that firms tell clients even when there's nothing to report, and say when they've chased a third party.

How long does HM Land Registry take to register a property transfer?

HM Land Registry said in October 2026 that over half of the non-automated applications to update the register, such as transferring a title, take 19 weeks, with most completed in about 9 months. The buyer's legal interest is protected from the moment the application is received.

Can a solicitor send case updates by text without consent?

Yes. Texts about a client's own matter are service messages, so they don't need marketing consent. They shouldn't include bank details or anything confidential that would show on a lock screen.