Delays for homebuyers

This is a system rife with issues and will shut down over Christmas, resulting in many homebuyers' mortgage offers expiring or being pulled, forcing potential buyers to continue renting. Some of the delays in the conveyancing process are due to solicitors being forced to deal with issues that are outside their domain such as, checking buyers' source of funds (should be done at the point when funds are received into a bank account by the relevant bank) and calculating, advising on and collecting stamp duty (this is the HMRC's job). Other issues include Land Registry's delays (perhaps due to underfunding or understaffing) and lenders' valuations taking weeks and slow solicitors. Many law firms are charging less than they should in order to win work (around £300 plus VAT for a residential property sale). Lawyers at these law firms are dealing with large volumes of matters, which slows down a transaction even if the solicitor on the other side is quick.

I am currently assisting a young family who have been waiting for their new-build shared-ownership property to be built for over 12 months. The mortgage offer will expire next week and we will have to resubmit their application. Currently, the developer expects their home to be ready in February 2023, nearly 18 months after my clients put an offer on the house. This delay will have the effect of their mortgage payments for their new home increasing by around £100-£200 per month and they're having to think again about what percentage of their new home they can afford to buy. I am unsure what has led to such a lengthy delay, whether it is issues with the supply of materials or labour and if this is arising due to Brexit, HS2 or coming out of Covid, but it is having a real and dramatic effect on a young family who just want to live in their own home.

Too much work, too few staff and archaic processes. I mean, who still sends faxes? Conveyancers, that's who. We are having so many disappointed clients because the conveyancing process is taking so long, their offers are expiring and they are having to re-apply for their mortgages. Not only does this have an expense in time, but we have had clients whose rates have near doubled, yet solicitors seem to shrug this off and take no responsibility. There are still some great solicitors out there, but they are being tarred with the same brush.

I recently had a client where the solicitors could not meet the deadline and the mortgage offer expired. Due to the fact that interest rates had increased the cost of the clients 5 year fixed would be a staggering £30,000 more over the 5 years of the fixed rate. Luckily with this particular lender we managed to get the offer extended and keep the rate however that's not possible for all lenders. As this is becoming more and more of an issue it's something that an adviser like myself are having to consider at the beginning of a recommendation. If I had two lenders with similar rates and costs but one will extend a mortgage offer with the same rate and the other wouldn't I would now always recommend the former as a back up plan even though we hope that this isn't needed. This isn't something that ever used to cross my mind with a standard purchase or remortgage before.

There are delays because too many mortgage advisors and estate agents refer to bad conveyancers as well as too many clients choose the cheapest firm they can find on Google. We got so fed up that we set up our own conveyancing platform in the summer and are still getting purchase cases to exchange contracts in under 10 weeks on average. Simple things like requesting searches on day one and choosing only to work with firms that have a good reputation for being proactive are shaving weeks, if not months off of transaction times.

The argument that volume is the reason for the conveyancing delays is slowly seeping out of the marketplace as we sharply return to pre Covid levels. A question therefore must be asked of the operating processes of the conveyancing firms themselves. Do they continue to allow homeworking and is this at the detriment of their clients? Have the postal strikes slowed up the delivery of documents in all directions, and therefore does more focus on electronic communication and signing need to be introduced to the conveyancing process? Overall, in 2023 I would like to see a return to full office working for conveyancers, along with some electronic streamlining of the entire process. This will begin to speed the process up for buyers.

For remortgages the delay's stem from the majority of lenders insisting upon using "fees free" conveyancing. These are large conveyancing factories, where the price has been driven down and taken the service with it. Typically they will not even start work until the mortgage offer has been received and then just correspond via email, with all but the most simple questions outside the understanding of the case owner. This can mean clients unnecessarily stepping onto SVR costing hundreds of pounds per month on their mortgage payments. For purchases , you are now looking at 16-20 weeks on average - although this can be longer in area's with manual searches such as us in Salisbury. The rollercoaster of the property market following the pandemic and the imposition of artificial end dates for stamp duty , furlough etc has created both huge pressure on firms and a log jam of business that has not been caught up. The conveyancing process needs reform - this traditional way of working , being the last bastians of "wet signatures" and written responses sent in the post simply has not caught up with technology.

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