You paid a deposit six months ago and still have no website

Why builds stall for months

Web agencies take deposits to lock you in, not because the work starts the moment you pay. Your project gets slotted behind whoever shouted loudest that week, and small clients rarely shout the loudest.

The usual pattern: a friendly kick-off call, a rough mockup, then weeks of silence. You chase. They apologise. A junior designer is mentioned. Another month passes.

Sometimes the agency is genuinely overloaded. Sometimes the person who sold you the project has left and nobody picked it up. Sometimes the deposit was spent on last month's payroll and they are waiting on new business to fund yours.

None of that is your problem. You paid for a website and you do not have one.

What you are owed by law

Under UK consumer and contract law, a service must be carried out within a reasonable time. Six months for a small business website is not reasonable. Three months is the outer edge for a straightforward build, and most should be done in four to six weeks.

If the contract gave a delivery date and that date has passed, the agency is in breach. If no date was given, "reasonable time" applies by default under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (for sole traders and micro businesses dealing as consumers) or basic contract law (if you contracted as a business).

You can ask for:

• A firm delivery date, in writing
• A refund of your deposit if they cannot meet a reasonable date
• Compensation for losses caused by the delay, if you can show them

The agency invoice that arrived on time every month was, it turns out, the only thing on schedule.

How to get your deposit back

Start with a written email, not a phone call. Phone calls give them room to fob you off with reassurances that vanish the moment you hang up. Email creates a record.

Send something like this:

I paid a deposit of £X on [date] for a website build. Six months later, no site has been delivered. Please confirm in writing by [date, 7 days from now] either a firm launch date within the next 30 days, or a full refund of the deposit.

If they ignore you or stall, escalate. If you paid by credit card or debit card, your card provider can help. Credit card payments over £100 are covered by Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act, which makes the card provider equally liable. Debit card payments can often be reversed through chargeback.

If the deposit is large enough to justify it, a solicitor's letter costs around £100-200 and usually shakes loose either the work or the refund. Small claims court is the next step after that, for amounts up to £10,000.

What to ask for in writing

Before you give them another chance, get specifics. Vague promises are how you ended up here.

• A firm launch date, with a penalty if missed
• A list of what is built so far, with links you can see
• The name of the person actually doing the work
• Confirmation that your domain name is registered in your name, not theirs
• Confirmation that whatever has been built will be handed over if you part ways

If they cannot answer those questions in a week, the project is not real. Whatever they have built, if anything, is sitting on a designer's laptop and will not survive their next reshuffle.

Moving on without losing more time

Whether you get the deposit back or not, you still need a website. The temptation is to give the agency another chance because you have already paid them. That is the sunk cost talking. Every extra month you wait is another month of lost enquiries.

A straightforward five-page site for a plumber in Leeds, a therapist in Bristol, or a cafe in Sheffield should take two to four weeks from sign-off to launch. Not six months. Not three. Two to four weeks.

SkipTheAgency builds small business sites from £600, hand-coded, with a fixed timeline written into the quote. If it overruns, that is my problem, not yours. After launch most clients move onto the Maintained plan at £65/month for ongoing changes and hosting - what most agencies charge £150/month for.

You have already lost six months. Do not lose another six waiting for someone who has stopped picking up.